Race attack victim accuses police after acquittal
01 January 1991
Race attack victim accuses police after acquittal
artdoc June=1991
Mohammed Altaf, a 56-year old Ford worker from Newham, was
cleared on a charge of grievous bodily harm at Snaresbrook
Crown Court and immediately declared his intention to sue the
police over his arrest and prosecution. The case was said to
have exposed grave deficiencies in the Metropolitan Police's
investigation of racial attacks and to have made a mockery of
their `action guide' issued on the subject last year.
Mr. Altaf's case arose from an incident last August when
he was visiting the home of his sister in Carlyle Road, Manor
Park. At the time, the Metropolitan Police were running a
high-profile publicity campaign, built around their `action
guide', to persuade victims of racial harassment to trust them
and to come forward with complaints.
Mr. Altaf s sister's family had themselves suffered racial
harassment and abuse over several months prior to last August's
events. On the day in question, white neighbours' children
knocked on her door, chanting `Paki bastards, go back where you
came from.' When her niece opened the door, she was hit by a
bicycle chain, and Mr. Altar's sister, who was pregnant at the
time, was hit by a dustbin lid and punched in the stomach. The
police were called but failed to respond.
At the trial, Mr. Altaf, who arrived on the scene after
the initial attack on his sister's family, was accused -of
having stabbed members of a neighbouring white family during
a scuffle in the street. But Mr. Altaf claimed that, in fact,
he had been attacked by a group of six white men as he got out
of his car and was beaten outside his sister's home. When he
retreated inside the house, the whites were said to have kicked
down the door and continued to assault him, during which one
of his assailants accidentally stabbed another. Mr. Altaf's
story was supported by evidence that when the police arrived
at the scene, they found the door to Mr. Altaf's sister's house
smashed in, all the downstairs windows broken and Mr. Altaf
bleeding from his nose, mouth and from a knife wound on his
knuckles. Despite this, the police never carried out forensic
tests on the blood found inside the house, and, although Mr.
Altaf s sister's home was searched for weapons, no similar
search was made of the houses of the white neighbours.
Mr. Altaf was acquitted by the jury after only 50 minutes
deliberation, and without his having to take the witness stand
or call any evidence in his defence. This was because of the
glaring inconsistencies between prosecution witnesses, whose
testimonies conflicted with one another and with earlier
statements made to the police. It also emerged during
cross-examination that two of the whites had previous
convictions for assault causing actual bodily harm.
After the trial, Mr. Altaf said of the police: `They would
not listen to what happened. It was only one-sided. I told
them the men were there, that they ran over to me and beat me,
but they did not bother about that.' His defence counsel,
Courtenay Griffiths, said, `At the end of the day, a black
family was driven from its home by violence and a relative
viciously assaulted, but the police and Crown Prosecution
Service blamed the victim.'
Mr. Altaf's sister has been rehoused by the local council,
a move welcomed by the white families concerned, who also
complained that bringing the case against Mr. Altaf was `a
farce' and that `whites have got no rights in this country'.
Now the Newham Monitoring Project is demanding that Newham
Council take action to evict the white families under their
anti-racial harassment policy. During the trial, Mr. Altaf's
relatives and members of the public were banned by Judge Finney
from entering the court. Also, following complaints from the
prosecution, the judge criticised a leaflet from the Newham
Monitoring Project as itself being `an incitement to ra