Muslim convert has history of violence and hurled ‘Kuffar scum’ abuse
An Islamic convert accused of assaulting a teenager for hugging his girlfriend in public called a group of non-Muslims ‘Kuffar scum’ and has a history of violent offending, a court heard.
Michael Coe, 35, allegedly attacked the then 16-year-old near Upton Park tube station in East Ham and also turned on the teacher Boutho Siwela when he intervened.
Southwark Crown Court heard today (tues) that Coe had been offending almost three years before his first alleged victim was born.
In 1997, when aged just 16, Coe was convicted of wounding which he told the court was due to him punching a white man who called him a ‘black bastard’.
Two years later he was convicted of a common assault and using threatening or abusive words or behaviour.
Since then he has been convicted of robbery, violent disorder at Notting Hill Carnival and other instances of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour, the court heard.
In 2006 he admitted using a firearm to resist arrest and explained today: ‘I had a gun, that was it.’
In May 2013 he was fined for religiously aggravated harassment.
Prosecutor Jonathan Polnay said: ‘On that occasion an 18-year-old girl was with some friends finishing school when the defendant shouted and beckoned her over.
‘When she reached him he became aggressive and said: ‘Why are you talking to them, it goes against your religion’.’
Coe was said to have shouted ‘you are going towards their path’ at the girl and yelling ‘they are Kuffar scum’ before calling her a slut.
He is also said to have told her: ‘At the end of the day it’s between you and Allah – you should change.’
Despite pleading guilty to the offence Coe told jurors that he did so as it would mean he avoided jail and that he disputed what he said.
Coe’s barrister asked him how long he had spent in prison to which he replied: ‘I have probably done about 12 years.’
His prepared statement to police was also read to the court in which he claimed he had assumed the girl was ‘pulling away’ from her boyfriend.
Five foot two engineering teacher Mr Siwela told jurors how his bike helmet was ‘a write off’ following the alleged altercation with Coe.
Mr Siwela said his attention was diverted from locking up his bike when he ‘heard the girl screaming’ and he looked up.
‘I saw the defendant standing over the boy who was lying on the ground,’ he told the court.
Mr Siwela pulled out his phone to take pictures of Coe’s number plate as he got back into his car.
But Coe spotted him, left the car and told Mr Siwela ‘give me that phone’, it is said.
‘I felt someone pick me up and throw me to the ground,’ the teacher told jurors.
‘I was still wearing my helmet – I had a hard impact on the back just behind my ear.’
He claimed Coe had tried to pull the phone from his hands before it had gone skidding along the floor.
Coe, of Devenish Road, Greenwich, denies one count each of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and battery.
The trial continues.
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