A man has today been sentenced to over three months imprisonment at Manchester magistrates’ court for the homophobic abuse of two men in Manchester city centre.
Ian Oldham, 29, verbally abused two men for singing songs from the musical ‘Wicked’ during a tram journey into Manchester city centre on October 31 2014.
The two men are reported to have been on their way to a night out in Manchester, but were soon disrupted by Oldham who proceeded to throw a ‘torrent of verbal abuse and threats of violence’.
The Crown Prosecution Service applied for a boost in Oldham’s sentence under S146 of the criminal justice act to highlight the homophobic facet of the crime.
As a result, the district judge added a 10% increase to the sentence.
David Graham, Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West said: “The two victims were subjected to a torrent of verbal abuse and threats of violence both during and after a tram journey into Manchester city centre which was purely motivated by homophobic prejudice.
“The men were in good spirits and looking forward to a night out in Manchester which was soon spoiled by a sequence of events which has greatly affected them since.
“The actions of Oldham drew the attention of another group of unidentified men, which in turn led to one of the victims being violently attacked in the street.
“Targeting someone because of their sexual orientation is totally unacceptable. The CPS and police are dedicated to tackling hate crime and we will continue to work closely together to bring those who commit such offences to justice for their disgraceful actions.”
Oldham was also sentenced at the hearing for 13 weeks imprisonment for a domestic violence assault and will therefore serve a total of six months in custody.
He was ordered to pay £520 Criminal Court Costs and £80 Victim Surcharge.
Image courtesy of Mike Fleming, with thanks.
