THREE men have admitted an attack a Muslim takeaway owner hours after Islamic State attacks on Paris.
Robbie Smart, Connor Crombie and Darren Macduff, all of Kirkcaldy, admitted their roles in a “fracas” outside the Caspian takeaway in Methil 24 hours after the Paris atrocities, that killed 130 people.
The trio, along with four other men, had been accused of “shouting racially offensive comments” towards Caspian owner Mohammed Khalid.
However, all seven had their not-guilty pleas to behaving in a racially aggravated manner accepted.
CCTV footage shown to Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court yesterday showed a large-scale disturbance outside the shop, which began when employee Mohammed Nadeem, 35, tried to close the shutters at closing time.
More than a dozen men appeared to be involved – one of whom kicked Mr Khalid in the face.
Smart, 18, admitted he kicked Mr Nadeem on the body to his injury, while Macduff, 18, admitted punching Mr Khalid on the body.
Crombie, 19, pled guilty to kicking Mr Nadeem on the body and repeatedly punching Mr Khalid, 53, on his head to injury in Wellsley Road, Methil, Fife on November 15 2015.
Kyle Campbell, 19, and Brandon Munro, 18, both of Kirkcaldy, along with Sean Wood, 20, of Coaltown of Wemyss, and a 17-year-old, of Kirkcaldy, who cannot be named, had their not guilty pleas accepted to all charges.
Sheriff James Williamson deferred sentence until March for social work reports.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article