Rezzas Abdulla was arrested after he spat on a child and yelled derogatory remarks in South Shields last January 2016, the Metro reports.
According to the mom, Rebecca Telford, Abdulla said that white people shouldn’t reproduce.
According to the report, Telford and her daughter were hanging around in the area when Abdulla approached them. Abdulla came in without any warning or acknowledgment, bent down to put his face closer to the child, and spat in her face.
Telford, of course, immediately took action and confronted him about it. Abdulla only responded, “Shut the f**k up” and then he left. He also yelled, “White people shouldn’t breed!” Abdulla had been previously arrested for race-hate attacks targeted on white women.
Telford’s victim impact statement for the police said: “I am completely disgusted and distressed that a grown man, regardless of race or religion, would spit on a defenseless baby in a completely unprovoked attack.
“If he had just walked by I would not have even noticed him, there was no eye contact and no words had been exchanged. I had never seen him before.”
Abdulla was sentenced to eight months of suspension with rehabilitation and mental health treatment requirements.
Layla-Jean, Telford’s two years old daughter, was immediately taken to the hospital after the attack. She was tested for tuberculosis and other sickness she could’ve gotten from the spit.
Telford said, “I believe he spat on her purely because we are white, I was a lone female and an easy target.”
Darren Preston, recorder, addressed a statement to Abdulla: “There is something viscerally horrible and disgusting about spitting at someone, particularly in the face and to do so to a baby was particularly disgusting, let alone to make things even worse when your motivation for doing so is racial hatred.”
He added, “You have got a problem, it seems to me, with white women.”
Abdulla was believed to be mentally troubled. He received psychiatric treatment due to the frequency of the attack and the oddness of his behavior. According to reports, his mental health was already deteriorating.
Telford said, “South Shields is really multicultural, and I have never witnessed anything like this before, between any races. It was horrifying. I am glad he has been brought to justice, but I think he has got off lightly.
“I am not racist at all but I honestly think if it was the other way around and I had been abusive towards him, then I would have been treated differently. I had been doing a bit of shopping and was just around the corner from my house.
“I saw a man walking in the opposite direction and then as he passed us he stopped, leaned into the pram, spat on Layla-Jean, and said, ‘White people should not breed’. It was horrendous, I was just so shocked. It was the racism that disgusted me. I started yelling at him and he just walked away.
“Layla Jean was just nine months old. She did not have a clue what was going on, but she was still distressed. A lady stopped and helped me to wipe her face. I didn’t call the police at first because I was just so worried about Layla-Jean. She was only nine months at the time.
“I phoned the doctor and I was told that Layla-Jean might need to have a BCG injection, in case she had contracted TB.
“Normally kids don’t get vaccinated until they are much older, and it would have been a lot for her to go through. Luckily, it wasn’t necessary in the end, but it put me through a lot of worry and stress.
“I wasn’t sure if the police would take what had happened seriously, because it wasn’t physically violent, but they were fantastic, and managed to catch him within a few days.”
Although his attack was clearly racially charged, Abdulla will be spared from imprisonment. He is now going through rehabilitation and treatment for his mental health. Racist behavior, of course, has no correlation with a person’s mental health. He was still punished for his attack to a child.
Abdulla was charged with racially aggravated common assault. He had his trial at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court. He, however, did not attend his own trial.
