Teenager gets two years for racial assault

A TEENAGER who struck a Polish man with a beer bottle in an unprovoked racist attack has been jailed for two years.

Steven Brooks, 19, approached the 40-year-old man on Aitken Orr Drive, Broxburn, while he was enjoying a Sunday afternoon stroll with his wife and asked whether he was Scottish or Polish before smashing him over the head with the bottle.

The victim, who required hospital treatment for a fractured cheekbone, was so traumatised by the street attack on February 27 that he declined to speak to police for nearly two weeks, it has been claimed.

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Brooks appeared at Livingston Sheriff Court on March 14, where he was remanded in custody. He returned to court on Thursday and was sentenced to two years in prison.

Today, a Polish support group in Edinburgh welcomed the "tough" sentence handed down to Brooks, from Broxburn, and said hefty jail terms could help to curb attacks on foreign nationals living in the Lothians.

Izabella Brodzinska, chair of the Scottish Polish Cultural Association, said: "I welcome the strong sentence that's been delivered and hope it will lead to safer streets in the Lothians."