Thug jailed for racist attack on Polish waiter

Published on Tuesday 3 June 2008 10:23

A MAN who carried out an unprovoked racist attack on a Polish waiter, and was found to be carrying a knife, has been jailed for 19 months at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

Twenty-nine-year-old Graham Hislen, a prisoner at Saughton, pled guilty today to the racially aggravated assault on 27-year-old Prezemyslaw Chudy in Lothian Road on March 7 this year.

He also admitted being in possession of a lock knife.

Mr Chudy, who worked as a waiter in the Bar Italia in Lothian Road, was on his way home after work at half-past midnight. Hislen and another man were walking in the opposite direction when Hislen approached Mr Chudy and began punching him repeatedly on the head, while shouting and swearing about the Polish.

He grabbed Mr Chudy's arms and tried to restrain him, but his victim broke free, ran back to the Bar Italia and called the police. Hislen was arrested nearby and police found the knife when he was checked at St Leonard's Police Station.

Defence agent Cameron Tait said his client was currently serving a sentence and was due for release in six weeks. He admitted Hislen had "been in and out of courts fairly regularly in recent years".

On the night in question, said Mr Tait, Hislen had been out with a friend and had been drinking excessively. He could only remember his friend becoming involved in "a verbal altercation" with someone else and he became involved. The solicitor said Hislen understood his behaviour was completely unacceptable. The knife, he said, was small, with a one and a half inch blade and carried on a key-ring.

Having inspected the weapon, Sheriff Kathrine Mackie said it was not something one would normally expect to see on a key-ring and could cause serious injury.

She jailed Hislen for 14 months for his "wholly unprovoked attack" on Mr Chudy and 19 months for possession of the lock-knife, the sentences to run concurrently. It was, she pointed out, his third conviction for carrying a knife.