Judge jails ‘racist bigot’ from Llandudno

A MAN has been branded a narrow-minded, racist bigot after harassing a mixed-race neighbour and sending him British National Party literature.

Paul Frossell, 40, of Mostyn Avenue in Llandudno, was jailed for eight months yesterday at Mold Crown Court.

Judge Rhys Rowlands told Frossell the courts had a duty to protect all citizens from racist abuse of whatever form.

He had denied racially aggravated harassment but was convicted at an earlier trial which heard how he had targeted a man of mixed race and his Polish partner.

He had been a neighbour when he popped a letter and BNP literature under their door.

Frossell, who at the time supplied mobility scooters, told the jury it was a parking dispute and nothing to do with race.

“I’m not a member of the BNP and I don’t vote BNP,” he said.

He insisted there was no malicious intent. His barrister Matthew Curtis suggested he was guilty of stupidity and ignorance but not of racism.

The victim Robert Islam, a courier, told the jury he had an Indian father and his mother was a mixture of English and Welsh.

He had a letter from Frossell which stated: “To the owner of the Ford Transit – we believe you are of Asian descent and can’t understand English.”

Mr Islam described himself as “mixed race and very British” and declared: “This was plain racist.”

Judge Rowlands said the victims were a hard-working, thoroughly decent couple but it was their misfortune to live in the same property as the defendant, an arrogant bigot who held wholly unacceptable views towards them.

“You took against them because he had the audacity to park his vehicle where you felt you were entitled to leave your own. You had no such right.”

He wrote to them in demeaning terms, referring to their ethnic origin and saying they may not understand English.

It was accompanied by a BNP flyer, followed by a second letter containing BNP literature.

The judge said it had been the cowardly targeting of the couple in their own home by a small minded bigot.

The couple were caused a great deal of unease and the female victim felt scared and threatened.

“She felt that somebody she didn’t know was trying to exercise control over her and her partner and threatening them.”

Matthew Curtis, defending, said while his client still denied the offence, he was prepared to co-operate in a programme run by the probation service to explore his attitudes and create further awareness.

Daily Post