Police treating Little Hulton taxi attack as a hate crime

Greater Manchester Police have confirmed that they are investigating an assault on a taxi driver in Little Hulton as a hate crime.

Shortly after 12.50am on Saturday 6 April 2019 a taxi driver was driving along Kenyon Way when a group of teenagers began throwing stones at the windscreen of his car.

The taxi driver pulled over and approached the group, requesting that they stop throwing stones. The teenagers started hurling racist abuse before they picked up sticks from the ground and launched an attack on the taxi driver, hitting him across his face, arms and legs.

The victim managed to get to his feet and although the group chased after him, he escaped to the safety of his taxi before driving off.

The victim suffered cuts and bruising to his lower back and face and required hospital treatment.

The seven offenders are described as white teenage boys, and they were wearing dark clothing and hooded sweatshirts.

PC Daniel Marshall, of GMP’s Salford district, said: “Incidents of this nature will never be tolerated in our communities, and we are doing everything we can to find those responsible for this vile attack.

“We have been carrying out a number of lines of enquiries since this incident and we are now appealing for the public’s help.

“If you were in the area at the time and you saw anything then please get in touch with police as soon as possible.

Salford City Council have a description of what they define as a hate crime on their website. They state that a Hate Crime is:

An offence committed against a person or property that is motivated by an offender’s hatred of someone because of their:

race, colour, ethnic origin nationality or national origins
religion
gender or gender identity
sexual orientation
disability
age
alternative sub-culture
Hate crime incidents include:

physical attacks – to people or property, including offensive graffiti or arson
the threat of attack – including offensive letters, telephone calls or groups of people hanging around to intimidate
verbal abuse or insults – including offensive leaflets and posters, abusive gestures and bullying at school or in the work place

Anyone with any information about the assault should contact police on 0161 856 2836 quoting incident number 1132 of 06/04/19.

Information can be passed on anonymously by calling the independent charity Crime stoppers on 0800 555 111.