A racist thug who attacked four innocent Asian men in Leicester city center has been spared jail

A racist drunken caller wanders off Leicester city centre after a stag party attacked four Asian men in completely unprovoked attacks, choking one and throwing a chair at another, severing his nose. Ethan Barrie was drunk in Loseby Lane shortly after 5pm on Saturday September 29 last year when he saw two Asian men standing outside Piero’s Snack Bar.

Barrie ran towards them and pushed one back, then grabbed the other by the throat, pushing his head up against the wall so he was struggling to breathe. He turned to the second man and threw a chair at him, hitting him in the face and causing his nose to bleed.

He then walked past an Asian man with his white girlfriend, and Barrie called the man a pedophile, then punched him in the face. He knocked him to the ground, sat astride him and splashed him.

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The man’s girlfriend pulled Barrie over and he threatened to hit her before smashing the man’s phone and warning the couple he was ‘following’ them as he left, hurling racial abuse at a group of young people nearby . He saw the same couple again a short time later and kicked the man to the ground, then left, shouting that the couple should not be together and that the man should “go back to his own country”, the prosecutor said Tim Devlin for Leicester Crown. Court on Friday.

Between the two attacks, he attacked a fourth Asian man who had been in the St Martin’s Square area talking to a friend about football. Barrie shouted, “What are you looking at?”

He then launched an attack, grabbing a drink from a table and throwing it before grabbing the man. He then went to the car park of the Blood Donor Center in Guildhall Lane and smashed the outside mirror of a parked car.

Leicestershire Police, after receiving several 999 calls, arrested Barrie after a short foot chase. Barrie went on to falsely accuse the arresting officer of injuring him and stealing his bracelet.

In his interview with police, he claimed to have no recollection of the incidents. He later pleaded guilty at Leicester Magistrates’ Court to two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, one racially aggravated charge for the same offence, willful strangulation and two counts of causing criminal damage.

James Doyle, representing Barrie, 21, of Hervey Woods, Whitwick, near Coalville, said there was no psychiatric background to justify his client’s actions. He said: “Unfortunately, there are young people who are angry.

“He is clearly remorseful and ashamed. He became very aware of the effect alcohol was having on him.

“He still drinks alcohol, but not excessively. It’s appalling behavior and there’s no getting around it.”

He said his client left Stephenson College in Coalville aged 16 and completed a three-year apprenticeship as a carpenter, now working six days a week for a company in the town.

Sentencing judge Recorder Sunil Khanna told Barrie: “You went on a drunken spree of violence and damage targeting Asian men. What happened was, frankly, awful.

“People were enjoying the evening and you, in your drunken state, went and attacked them. They didn’t do anything to you and in your drunken state racism came out.”

He said because of Barrie’s young age and lack of previous offences, he was prepared to give him a suspended prison sentence. He said: “It was a very, very difficult decision for me. Only the fact that you are young and working convinces me to suspend the sentence.

“Some may criticize me for doing this. I was very merciful in this case and it’s the only chance you’ll get.”

He gave an 18-month sentence, suspended for two years, with 180 hours of unpaid work.