Police are hunting a man who rubbed plastic faeces in the face of a four-year-old Muslim girl in front of her grandmother outside a pub in Worcester.
The girl’s uncle, Tayyib Nawaz, said she was now too scared to go back to Worcester city centre.
The perpetrator attacked the young girl and her grandmother, while his group of 20 friends laughed and cheered, outside the Royal Exchange in Cornmarket yesterday at around 4pm.
A number of people used their mobile phones to film the man dangling the item in their faces.
Nawaz told Worcester News that: “My mum, my sister with her 18-month-old son in a pushchair and her daughter, aged four, were walking through town and some “man” thought it would be cool to try and rub fake poo in my niece’s face.
“Then he tried to do the same to my mum too, which received a load of cheers. Now my niece is too frightened to even go back into town. Nobody intervened. Absolutely disgusting.”
Nawaz’s sister believes they were targeted because they were wearing headscarves and Asian clothes.
Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated on the latest news and updates from around the Muslim world!
He added that when his family were visibly distressed by the attack, the men carried on and “did not feel any remorse or guilt”.
West Mercia Police are treating the incident as racially motivated.
The pub landlord, Terry Clarke, said he kicked the men out of his premises once he realised what had happened.
“I had a couple of women come in and tell me what had happened, they had tried to rub the poo in an Asian woman’s face,” he said.
“That was the last straw. I went over there and told them they needed to leave, and the guy started giving me a mouthful – but I said enough’s enough.”
Description
The police are appealing to those who filmed what happened to come forward.
The offender was described as a white man about 6ft tall and of average build with “chubby cheeks”.
At the time of the incident he was wearing three quarter length white trousers and dark blue or navy blue shoes.
He had short light brown hair and may have had some facial stubble.
Inspector Gerard Smith said: “This was a distressing incident for this family, particularly the children, and has left them shaken.
“I want to stress that this sort of behaviour is not tolerated in Worcester or anywhere else in the West Mercia policing area.
“We are actively investigating and I would appeal to anyone who witnessed this incident to please come forward.”
