Man is jailed over racist attack

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/7064223.stm

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A man who helped attack a house full of Polish workers on Belfast's Donegall Road has been jailed for six years.

Robert Spence, 24, from Ringford Crescent, had denied being part of a gang which smashed their way into the house on 20 March, 2006.

However, he was found guilty at Belfast Crown Court of two counts of aggravated burglary, one count of criminal damage and an assault charge.

A Polish man was beaten with a baton during the attack.

The gang smashed two windows and a mirror as they broke their way into the house.

They tried to force their way into the living room and as a man who lived in the house prevented this, he was beaten. He was not seriously injured.

The incident lasted for about three minutes and the gang fled the scene when police arrived.

Spence was placed at the scene by blood which was examined by forensic experts.

Branding the incident as "clearly a racially-motivated attack", Judge Derek Rodgers said: "The victims were hard-working decent people who came to Northern Ireland to help the economy.

"Their crime, in your eyes, was that they came from another country and spoke another language.

"The progress we have made in tolerance and harmony must not be undermined by the racist attitudes of a small minority."