Man convicted for shouting 'get back to your own country' at young mother wearing headscarf as she walked down street with children
Self-declared white supremacist Leslie Blaney told police 'non-white English speaking people should leave England and have no part here'
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A white supremacist who told a young mother wearing a headscarf to “get back to your own country where you belong” has been convicted of racially aggravated harassment.
Leslie Blaney, 65, “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 1 July, 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 on Friday.
Pamela Fee, 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.
Ms Fee said: “Had it not been for their courage and support, the victim would have walked away and Blaney would never had been brought to justice for his deplorable actions.
“I would encourage anyone who hears racist abuse or sees a repeated pattern of racist behaviour to come forward to report it regardless of how minor an incident may initially appear.”
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, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib to “go back” to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came”.
Authorities have since been urged to step up protections for Democrat representatives, all of whom are US citizens and three of whom were born in the country.