A Middlesbrough councillor was threatened with a knife and racially abused when he went to the rescue of a woman being terrorised in the street by her boyfriend.
Sajaad Khan ignored the danger to himself in central Middlesbrough, and the man was given a suspended jail sentence yesterday.
The boyfriend Shaun Gillespie, 21, told police who arrested him that he was “bang out of order”.
Prosecuter David Brooke told Teesside Crown Court that Councillor Khan was walking in Crescent Road, Middlesbrough, on August 2 when he heard the couple arguing, and he saw Gillespie with a 6-inch kitchen knife and heard the woman say “No don’t”.
Councillor Khan, an independent who represents Gresham, walked between them and Gillespie said something like “What are you looking at,Paki?
“I’ll knife you, now walk away”.
Mr Brooke added: “At one point the knife was brandished towards him, and he put his hands up and walked away.
“Because of his position in the community and the knife he decided to go back, but he phoned his brother.”
The woman was alone but the man re-appeared saying “I’ll get the knife”. He did not get the knife, but then he ran off.
Gillespie was well-known, and when he was arrested for the two offences he said that he was “bang out of order for both”.
He said that he was having an argument with his girlfriend and the man came along and intervened.
The man left and returned with another man, and Gillespie said that he pulled out the knife.
He pleaded guilty on the basis that he had a knife in his hand and he called the man names. He accepted that in the heat of the moment he called the man Paki but he said he was not a racist.
Mr Brooke said: “It seems accepted that Mr Khan intervened and the defendant held the knife threatening him and he used the word Paki more than once.”
Andrew White, defending, said that Gillespie had an argument with his girlfriend, and the door was kicked-in. He got the knife to make some repairs.
Gillespie accepted that he swore at Mr Kahn, waved the knife and called him names. He left the scene and he ran away when Mr Khan returned with his brother before any escalation took place.
The judge told Gillespie that if he had any previous convictions for violence or public disorder he would have gone immediately to jail.
Recorder Howard Prosser said: “There are many people who think that anybody who commits offences in the street involving a knife and threatening behaviour with a racial aspect should receive a sentence which is immediate.
“I am just standing back from that but you won’t get another suspended sentence if you act in this way again.”
Gillespie, of Wicklow Street, Linthorpe, was given a six months jail sentence suspended for two years with 12 months supervision and 200 hours unpaid work after he pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon and racially aggravated threatening words and behaviour.
The judge ordered the confiscation and destruction of the knife.
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