York barber and his shop targeted in racial attack

One customer was so terrified by the violence he saw when he popped in for a hair trim that he ran out of the shop still wearing a barber’s protective cape, York Crown Court heard.

Kelly Clarke, prosecuting, said father Steven Robert Hall had himself been in as a customer 20 minutes earlier and told the barber as he left: “Right, I am calling Patrick (his son) now, he is going to smash your face, smash your shop and smash your car.”

After he arrived with his father, Patrick Steven Ryder Hall said: “Go back to your own country.” He had made similar comments earlier in the day to a relative of the barber, who was also in the shop.

Both men were so violent towards the barber and his relative, the two victims fled and hid in the back of the shop.

The son then fetched a spade from a flat top truck outside and smashed the shop’s windows.

The barber told the court the attack had traumatised him so much he now tensed every time a car drove up outside the shop. Customers who were in the shop during the violence had not returned, he said.

One of the victims after the racial attack on Mustachio's (Image: Supplied)

The other victim told the court he had found York to be a lovely city with lovely people when he arrived from Iraq in 2018 and couldn’t understand why he had been attacked. He paid his taxes and worked hard.

Steven Hall, 58, of Pottery Lane, York, and Patrick Hall, 39, of Rowntree Avenue, Clifton, both pleaded guilty to affray. Both have previous convictions for violence and Patrick Hall had served a prison sentence for aggravated burglary.

Thug Patrick Hall (Image: North Yorkshire Police)

The son was jailed for 12 months because he had used a weapon and had kicked the second victim.

The father was given a 10-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months on condition he does 150 hours’ unpaid work. Each man must pay £111.28 compensation to the barber for the cost of replacing the windows.

Mustachio's Barber Shop on Monkton Road, York (Image: Google Street View)

Ms Clarke said Steven Hall was having his hair cut at 11.45am on May 31, 2023, in Mustachio’s Barbers on Monkton Road, Heworth when the barber asked him why Patrick Hall had made racial comments towards the second victim earlier that morning.

The father left saying he was ringing his son and made the “smash” threats.

After the father and son returned, the father hit the barber in the face and the son punched the relative and kicked him to the face.

The relative suffered cuts to his head and neck and the barber a cut to his cheek.

Barristers for both Halls said they had kept out of trouble since, they had had to wait a year to be charged, and locking them up would adversely affect other members of the family.

Charlotte Noddings for the father said he was ashamed of his actions and his most recent conviction had been in 2009.