A man has been jailed for a racially motivated attack at a York barber shop where two people were beaten up and the windows smashed.
Patrick Hall, 38, went on a violent spree at the Mustachios Barber in Heworth after being egged on by his father, Steven.
One terrified customer ran out of the shop still wearing his barber’s gown, York Crown Court.
The incident began when Steven Hall, 59, went for a haircut at the barbers on 31 May last year. He was told that Patrick had made racist comments to the owner’s friend earlier that morning.
Steven Hall then flew into a rage. He stormed out and told the owner – who was of foreign extraction – that he was going to call his son and tell him to “smash your face, smash your shop and smash your car”.
About 20 minutes later, the father and son “marched up” to the barbers on Monkton Road where Steven Hall punched the owner in the face while Patrick Hall repeatedly punched the victim’s friend and colleague and kicked him in the head.
The owner’s friend, an Iraqi national to whom Patrick Hall had allegedly made racist comments earlier that day, fled outside but was attacked again in the street.
Both victims finally managed to escape after hiding in the back of the shop, but Patrick Hall was far from finished.
“He took a spade from the back of a flat-bed truck outside the shop and began to smash the windows at the front of the shop,” said prosecutor Kelly Clarke.
A male witness said he heard Patrick Hall shouting: “You aren’t welcome here.”
Panic attacks
The barber shop owner suffered a cut to his head. His friend suffered cuts to his head and neck.
Patrick and Steven Hall were arrested and charged with affray. They both admitted the offence and appeared for sentence yesterday (Wednesday).
In a victim impact statement, the barber shop owner said he had panic attacks after the incident and was anxious every time a car pulled up outside his shop.
He said he had been “traumatised” and that he and his friend found the “racial element” of the attack “confusing”.
“I work hard for my family and pay my taxes,” he added.
He had to pay to have the broken windows replaced and the attack had affected his business because some of his customers who were there at the time never returned.
His friend said he had moved from Iraq to the UK in 2018 “to be safe” and he had settled in York in 2021.
He said he felt “shocked and frightened” by the incident, especially because York was a “beautiful city and the people are friendly and charitable towards me”.
“It’s had a big impact on my life,” he added. “I did not sleep through fear.”
Ms Clarke said that when quizzed by police the day after the attack, Patrick Hall, of Rowntree Avenue, York, wanted to know the religion of the victims.
He had 16 previous convictions for 24 offences including serious violence, aggravated burglary, resisting a police officer and public disorder.
Steven Hall, of Pottery Lane, York, had 75 previous offences on his criminal record which included burglaries, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, attempting to obtain property by deception and assaulting a police officer.
Shown remorse
Defence barrister Andrew Petterson, for Patrick Hall, said the father-of-one had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.
Charlotte Noddings, for Steven Hall, said that her client, a self-employed plasterer, had played a lesser role in the affray and had otherwise stayed out of trouble since 2009.
She said he was “at the very heart of his family” and had “turned his back on the life he led as a younger man”.
Judge Simon Hickey said the attack was “undoubtedly racially motivated”, adding: “This is a York street in the middle of the day when this attack takes place, shocking for members of the public.”
Patrick Hall was jailed for 12 months, of which he will serve half behind bars before being released on prison licence.
Mr Hickey said that in Steven Hall’s case, he could suspend the inevitable prison sentence because of his remorse, family commitments and character references which showed “the other side of your character”.
He said that Steven Hall’s participation in the violence amounted to “throwing a few punches”.
Steven Hall received a 10-month suspended jail sentence with 150 hours of unpaid work.
Both father and son were each ordered to pay just over £111 compensation to the owner of the barber shop for the damage to the shop windows.
