Racist Chippenham thug is jailed

National Front thug Aiden Minnis, who launched an unprovoked racist attack on a man in the street, has been jailed for four years and three months.

Minnis, of Woodlands Road, Chippenham, who used to be a member of the far right party, hit his mixed race victim over the back of the head with a port bottle in the late night attack. The 22-year-old, who has a history of violence, shouted racist insults at his victim and before the assault in Chippenham.

A judge at Swindon Crown Court today jailed Minnis for the attack and a number of other violent incidents including a robbery and attempted robbery.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, told the court how the race attack on Darren McMillan took place on Sunday September 2 last year. She said he had been out on the Saturday night in Chippenham and Bath and was walking home along Bristol Road towards Hungerdown Lane at about 3am. He noticed two men walking towards him and heard them starting to shout the racial abuse.

“At first he was not bothered but as they got closer he took out his mobile phone and started to call the police,” she said.

“He recalls being on the phone to the operator when he heard one say ‘Yeah, you get help’ and use more racial abuse. As he went along he felt himself being stuck to the back of the head by something hard. He fell to the ground still connected to the operator.”

He came round to find he was covered in blood from a cut to the back of his head which required nine staples.

Miss Marlow said the man who was with Minnis called the police to tell them how he had seen him strike the victim with a bottle of port he had been drinking from.

The court heard that two months later Minnis robbed one man of his wallet and contents and tried to rob another, punching both to the face, and in January this year he and an accomplice assaulted a homeless man.

Minnis pleaded guilty to robbery, attempted robbery, common assault and unlawful wounding.

The court heard he had a long history of offending, most of which involved violence, including a racially aggravated public order offence. Jason Taylor, defending, said his client was still a young man and was striving to change his ways.

“He was a member of the National Front, a class A drug addict and an alcoholic by the age of 20,” he told the court.

“Since then he no longer associates with the National Front, no longer has an addiction the class A drugs. The last addiction he had to alcohol he says even now is entirely under control and was before he was remanded into custody on the last occasion.”

At the time of the offending he said his client was living on friends’ sofas after being thrown out of home. He said he was now in a stable relationship with a woman who was pregnant with his child and due to give birth in May.

Jailing him Judge Douglas Field said “Aiden Minnis, you are 22 years of age and you have a long record of serious offending. Much of your offending has to do with violence and now I have to deal with you for three groups of offences all of which have a violent element to them.”

Chippenham Gazette and Herald