Racist thugs yet to serve time despite conviction

Published on Monday 7 December 2009 08:43

A PAIR of racist thugs who were sentenced to five years in jail for an attack on an Asian man in 2006 are still to serve their prison time, despite losing a marathon appeal against conviction.

John Anderson and Ryan Wicksted were both found guilty of punching, kicking and stamping on Khalid Iqbal, leaving the innocent victim permanently disfigured.

Both men were released from prison on bail in spring 2007 while they waited for an appeal against their convictions, which only ended in failure last week after more than 30 months.

But despite the Appeal Court in Edinburgh throwing out their case, the pair were freed again on bail to await a second appeal against the length of their sentences.

Anderson, 24, and Wicksted, 23, served less than nine months of their five-year sentences from August 2006, after lawyers argued that they should be free while the appeal was ongoing. No date has been set for the new appeal.

If it fails, Anderson, of Cathcart Place, Dalry, would still be expected to serve 31 months and Wicksted, of Robertson Avenue, Gorgie, another 32 months in jail.

Former city councillor Shami Khan, chairman of the Edinburgh and Lothian Racial Equality Council,

said: "They should not have been bailed for the appeal in the first place. They should have served the sentences given to them in court.

"The victim has been left with the fear that it could happen again to him. He has to live with that. It is wrong that this carries on."

Bill Aitken, Tory justice spokesman, said: "An appeal should never take two-and-a-half years. I also cannot understand why the appeal against conviction and the appeal against sentence were not heard simultaneously.

"Justice delayed is justice denied, particularly as far as the victim is concerned."

The racist attack in May 2005 was described by the sheriff who jailed them as "an affront to civilised society". Anderson and Wicksted, along with Bradley McLennan, were found guilty of attacking Mr Iqbal in Wardlaw Street to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement.

McLennan, who has already served his sentence in a young offender's unit, also lost his appeal against conviction last week.

Mr Iqbal, then 23, had been walking in Gorgie with his white girlfriend when Anderson and McLennan began hurling abuse.

Joined by Wicksted, the drunken trio followed him to a flat before kicking in the common stair door and attacking the victim, leaving him lying in a pool of blood.

As they left, Anderson told Mr Iqbal's girlfriend: "Ha ha, your P*** boyfriend is dead."

Lawyers for the trio argued that the positive IDs that identified them as the attackers, principally by Mr Iqbal, were flawed. But Lord Reed, Lord Clarke and Lord Woolman upheld the convictions, citing other identifications and blood on the clothes of the accused.

Anderson and Wicksted refused to comment to the Evening News.