"He quickly got back up and he charged at my group and started throwing punches at me"
A Chinese Imperial College student who was called a “chink”, kicked his aggressor in the face, fracturing his nose and eye socket.
The 20-year-old student Sidney Chan was leaving a student bar when Kingston University student Stephen Kent hurled the racist slur at him.
Prosecutor Paul Fairley suggested Chan initially ‘provoked’ Mr Kent by commenting on his 1980s-style mullet haircut. Chan denied commenting on his hair, “I never said anything about his hair. He called me a chink.”
“He started throwing punches at me after he fell to the ground after I had pushed him,” Chan added, “He quickly got back up and he charged at my group and started throwing punches at me.”
CCTV showed Chan’s friends restraining him, but Chan confronted Kent again.
Fairley asked, “Why, given your account that you were frightened and thought that you were being assaulted, why did you seem so eager to get back into the fray and engage Mr Kent?”
Chan replied, “Because he was persisting to get back up and continue the fight. I guess at that point I was pretty angry and I wanted to make sure that he stops fighting me.”
Fairley said, “You had completely lost your head, that fact that the member of your group was having to lift you forcefully off the ground to get you to move in the direction that everyone else was moving.”
“The truth is Mr Chan isn’t it, that you know as well as anyone that someone who is on the ground, there’s no justification for kicking is there?”, Fairley asked.
The fracas left Kent with a fractured nose and eye socket and a heavy concussion. “His face was puffed up like a balloon,” said Fairley.
Chan denies one count of wounding with intent, “all I wanted him to do was leave us alone, stop following us, and stop fighting me, and stop harassing my friends.”
It’s interesting that Fairley suggests to Chan that there’s no justification for kicking someone who’s down, but seems to justify Kent’s behavior because Chan provoked him by commenting on his haircut. Well, Mr Fairley, there’s no justification for calling someone a chink… unless one was being mocked for their 1980s-style mullet of course.
The trial continues…