Three teenagers have this week been jailed over a number of racist attacks on Asian shopkeepers in Bristol.
Nicholas Gardener, from Burnham-On-Sea, and twins Luke and Justin Lovedale, all aged 17, were each handed 18 month sentences on Wednesday (November 11th).
Gardener was convicted of three racially aggravated assaults, while the Lovedale twins were both found guilty of one at Bristol Magistrates’ Court.
District Judge David Parsons said the victims were “targeted on the basis of their ethnicity”.
CCTV footage played to the court (and pictured on this page) showed the youths launching unprovoked assaults on shopkeepers in Bedminster.
The judge told the youths: “The CCTV showed each of you cruelly assaulting the victims. You have shown no empathy, no remorse and no shame.”
Before launching the assaults racist threats were shouted by the youths, the court heard.
As sentence was passed, one of the trio shouted abuse at the judge before all were led away.
The Lovedale twins, from south Bristol, carried out the attacks with Gardener, from Burnham, on the night of 6th June.
Between 10.30pm and 11.30pm a Bargain Booze and Costcutter shop in Bedminster were targeted, and three staff subjected to kicks and punches.
The three accused admitted a string of assault and criminal damage charges, but claimed they were not motivated by racism.
But after a three-day trial in October the district judge rejected their denials. He added a 30-month anti-social behaviour order to the sentence, forbidding them from meeting in certain areas of south Bristol.
