PENSIONER BLAMES RACISM ON HIS CAT

A racist pensioner who blamed his cat for a foul-mouthed attack on his Muslim neighbours was given an ASBO.

Retired sailor Edward Restarick, 72, hurled bottles at brothers Irfan and Imran Iqbal and shouted abuse about the prophet Mohammed and Pakistanis .

The senior citizen – who has a string of racism convictions – must now obey an antisocial behaviour order banning him from harassing neighbours in Sunningdale Avenue in Barking, Essex.

He must also complete six months’ rehabilitation to curb his drinking and attend anti-racism classes as part of his one year community order.

The judge, Recorder Anne Studd, also ordered Restarick, to pay £1,000 costs.

She said: ‘You demonstrated a sustained hostility to [the Iqbals] based on their race and then on their religion.

‘Your neighbours have a right to live without that harassment.

‘In my view it was caused to a large extent by excessive drinking.

‘This has to stop, Mr Restarick, because otherwise, regardless of your age, you will find yourself in prison.’

The ASBO bans Restarick from making derogatory comments on race and religion to his neighbours, smashing glass in the street or causing any type of ‘nuisance’ in Sunningdale Avenue.

Snaresbrook Crown Court how Restarick downed half a bottle of vodka yelling ‘****ing Pakis, **** off back to your own country’ and ‘**** Mohammed and **** Islam’ during the January 22 attack.

Surveyor Irfan, 27, told jurors he was awoken by Restarick swearing and ‘pacing up and down the street’.

The pensioner, who lives two doors away from the Iqbal brothers, armed himself with bottles.

Restarick smashed a bottle in the Iqbals’ front garden before hurling more racist and Islamophobic abuse.

A mobile phone recording by Imran, 31, of Restarick’s vile rant was played to jurors.

Restarick, who has a string of convictions for targeting ethnic minorities, denied lobbing bottles and making obscene slurs.

He claimed the Iqbals mistook him swearing at his cat named ‘Muslie’.

Restarick told the court: ‘I was calling my cat, trying to get him in. When he doesn’t come in, I lose my temper a bit and start swearing.

‘I say “come on Muslie you bastard”.’

Jurors heard how Restarick was convicted of racially aggravated common assault in 1999.

Restarick was later convicted of destroying property when he damaged his Asian neighbours’ cars in 2007.

Veronica Ramsden, defending, said Restarick had hit the bottle after becoming ‘lonely and depressed’ since the death of his mother in 2001.

Restarick, of (38) Sunningdale Avenue, Barking, was convicted of racially aggravated harassment and religiously aggravated harassment.

ENDS