A racist thug was told he faced jail for headbutting a Muslim doctor and telling her to “Go back to your country”.
Aiden Fletcher made the comments as a group of women wearing headscarves were seeking to console a friend whose mother had just died in Pakistan.
The assault took place in a street after dark and left the victim with a headache and needing help from an NHS counselling service, Nottingham Magistrates’ Court heard.
Andrew Conboy, prosecuting, said the victim was Dr Syeda Jafricorr, a doctor who worked at the Queen’s Medical Centre. She had received a call from a friend whose mother had just died.
“As a result, she decided to go and visit her to pay condolences and assist her,” said Mr Conboy.
With some friends, she went down Birkin Avenue, Hyson Green, trying to find the address of the woman after 8.15pm on October 29.
“She heard a male say ‘move out of my way’. The defendant stood in front of her,” he said.
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Dr Jafri told her friends there was “plenty of space” but did not speak to Fletcher.
“The defendant may have thought they were saying something about him but the woman was saying to her friends ‘let’s get away’. He said ‘what did you say’ and repeated it several times.
“She got her phone out, he headbutted her and said ‘get back to your country’,” Mr Conboy told the three magistrates.
A woman resident got involved and asked the doctor why she was phoning the police.
The court heard that Dr Jafri suffered “a concussion-related headache and had a series of counselling sessions due to the trauma caused by the incident”.
Fletcher, 23, of Birkin Avenue, Hyson Green, admitted racially aggravated assault by beating.
He was granted unconditional bail and was ordered to return to court to be sentenced on March 15.
Lynsey Morrison, mitigating, said Fletcher had suffered a family bereavement.
She told the court: “Having attended his cousin’s funeral that day, he accepts that he had been drinking and accepts that he headbutted the complainant once.”
But he denied claims that he spat on the pavement near the group of women. He left the area immediately and played no part in the incident when the neighbour approached the doctor soon afterwards.
Miss Morrison added: “Mr Fletcher accepts the racial assault. There was no physical injury and in terms of the complainant’s vulnerability, she was not particularly vulnerable due to personal circumstances.”
Presiding magistrate Richard Walker told Fletcher: “We will ask the probation service to prepare a report about you and this incident on an all-options basis – including the possibility of custody – to help the next bench in coming to a decision on how best to deal with this. You need to engage with them and help them to do that.”
Speaking after the hearing, mum-of-three Dr Jafri, 33, who had to take three days off from her work in the intensive care unit following the incident, said: “When you are on the other end of this, it makes you feel there is a complete failure in society to have a random person act like this.
“It makes you feel worthless and makes you completely lose faith in humanity.”
