Nadine Osman
A self-proclaimed white supremacist who told a young mother wearing a hijab to “get back to your own country where you belong” has been convicted of racially aggravated harassment.
65-year-old Leslie Blaney “unleashed a torrent of racial abuse” at the victim as she walked in the street with her two young children in Workington, Cumbria.
He was arrested after two passers-by overheard him shouting “various racial insults” and flagged down a passing police van in Murray Road on July 1, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
During a police interview, Blaney described himself as a white supremacist and said he believed all “non-white English speaking people should leave England and have no part here.”
Asked whether he thought his behaviour was acceptable, he answered: “To me it is.”
Blaney pleaded guilty to racially aggravated behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm and distress at Workington Magistrates’ Court.
Pamela Fee, a senior crown prosecutor for northwest England, said: “Leslie Blaney, a self-declared white supremacist, unleashed a torrent of racial abuse at a young mother as she walked down a busy street with her young children, simply because she was wearing a headscarf.
“Spouting such poisonous views in a public place is not acceptable in today’s society, and we will continue to bring before the courts those who commit hate crime offences.”
She commended the passers-by who flagged down police, and who were also verbally abused by Blaney after challenging him over the abuse.
Fee said: “Had it not been for their courage and support, the victim would have walked away and Blaney would never have been brought to justice for his deplorable actions.”
Blaney was sentenced to a 10-week community order with a curfew and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £90 victim surcharge.
His conviction comes after Donald Trump used similar language in a racist attack on four US congresswomen. The President told Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayana Pressley and Rashida Tlaib to “go back” to the “totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”
