The widow of a Muslim pensioner who was killed by racists after they falsely accused him of grooming white girls has described how she struggles to explain to their grandchildren that he died because of his faith.
Mushin Ahmed, 81, was punched, kicked and stamped upon while walking to a mosque for early morning prayers in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. The town has been at the heart of a scandal involving gangs of mainly Asian paedophiles sexually abusing white girls. There was no suggestion that Mr Ahmed, who had 14 grandchildren, was implicated.
Dale Jones, 30, was sentenced at Sheffield crown court yesterday to life in prison and told that he must serve a minimum of 32 years after being convicted of murder. Damien Hunt, also 30, was jailed for 14 years after he was found guilty manslaughter.
Mr Justice Males said: “It is a shocking thing in modern Britain that a man should be attacked and beaten and kicked to death just because of the colour of his skin, but there is no doubt that this is what Mr Ahmed suffered.”
Jones flew into a “raging fury” after a day and night of drinking and taking drugs. He confronted Mr Ahmed at 3.20am on August 10.
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Andrew Robertson, QC, for the prosecution, said: “Jones immediately accused him of being a groomer, no doubt his word for paedophile and no doubt an accusation made by Jones for no better reason than Mr Ahmed was Asian.”
Mr Ahmed had lived at the same address for 47 years with his wife, Margaret, and attended the mosque up to five times a day. The former steelworker was found by a passer-by two hours after the attack and died in hospital 11 days later. He had the imprint of Jones’s trainer across his face.
His widow read out a victim statement in court which had members of the jury in tears.
“It was a crime of the most heinous kind,” she said. “He was viciously murdered all on the account of his appearance of being from a different ethnicity and religion than his attackers.”
Mrs Ahmed said that the family would find it difficult to explain to the grandchildren “that the faith which they shared with their grandfather was the only reason that he was killed”.
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The convictions came three days after four Asian men and a white woman were jailed for a total of 102 years for sexually exploiting young white girls in Rotherham.