Director of Public Prosecutions v Dykes: Admn 21 Oct 2008

The defendant had been convicted in his absence of threating behaviour, but acquitted of racially aggravated threatening behaviour. The prosecutor appealed. On being asked to leave a hospital reception he had cursed the ‘lying Paki doctor’ who had assisted him on the evening before.
Held: The appeal succeeded. In deciding whether an offence is racially aggravated within the terms of section 28, the Magistrates should have simply focused on the question of whether the remark had been made, whether it was in fact a remark which demonstrated racial hostility about which there can be little or no argument, and then to see whether, the remark having been made during the course of the commission of the offence, either subsection 1(a) or (b) was engaged.

Judges:

Calvert Smith J

Citations:

[2008] EWHC 2775 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Public Order Act 1986 5, Crime and Disorder Act 1998 31(1)(c)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Crime

Updated: 19 July 2022; Ref: scu.277926