April 2013

Jail for three Lincoln men who attacked teenager because he had ginger hair

Callum Booth, Nathan Booth and James Hatton

Three men who attacked a Lincoln teenager because he had red hair have been jailed for a total of 10 years.

The unlucky 14-year-old was simply playing football with friends on the Birchwood estate when he was singled out by violent ringleader Nathan Booth, 22, who was jailed for five years and nine months.

Booth stamped on the child’s head as his older brother Callum, and their friend James Hatton, also “piled in,” Lincoln Crown Court heard

The boy suffered a broken arm while trying to protect his head. He needed surgery and a metal plate to repair the injury.

The trio, all from Lincoln, went out seeking some form of revenge after another youth with red hair verbally abused Booth’s sister, the court was told.

In an emotional witness statement the boy, who cannot be named, described how he was attacked after Booth approached him and asked for the time.

Gareth Weetman, prosecuting, said: “Nathan Booth took the lead and as the boy was taking his phone out to check the time he hit him.

“He recalls the group of three piling in on him. He remembers the stamping of feet and curled up.”

The boy suffered a broken right arm as he tried to protect his head and later needed surgery to insert a metal plate to repair the injury.

Callum Booth, 27, of Lancaster Court, off High Street, and James Hatton, 25, of Lamb Gardens, St Giles, were each jailed for 26 months after all three attackers admitted causing the boy grievous bodily harm.

Jailing all three men, Judge Sean Morris told them: “There was no reason for this attack, worse than that it was just because he had red hair.”

The court heard Nathan Booth carried out two further unprovoked assaults within six months after being granted bail following the attack on the boy in April 2011.

During the first incident Booth repeatedly punched a woman and twice kicked her in the face after becoming involved in a domestic row.

His victim, Emma Foster, 23, was taken to hospital with a “variety of injuries” from her head to shin, the court was told.

Miss Foster’s former boyfriend, Timothy Campbell, 28, of St Rumbolds Street, Lincoln, was jailed for nine months after he admitted striking her with a single punch at the start of the incident.

Supermarket worker Carla Smart, 19, of Swift Gardens, St Giles, Lincoln, was also given a two-year-conditional discharge after she admitted pulling Miss Foster’s hair.

In her victim impact statement, Miss Foster said she now felt very depressed and was reluctant to go out in public.

Booth was again released on bail after the attack, but was re-arrested just two months later after breaking a stranger’s jaw during an unprovoked attack in a McDonalds near the University of Lincoln.

The man was left unable to eat for six months and required three operations to insert a plate in his jaw after Booth struck him with a single punch as he was sitting down in the restaurant “minding his own business.”

Booth, of Addison Drive, St Giles, admitted two charges of inflicting grievous bodily harm and a single offence of assault causing actual bodily harm between April and October 2011.

Passing sentence, Judge Morris warned him: “One day if you are not careful young man you are going to kill somebody.

“You have been beating up children, beating up women, that is the mark of a coward.”