Neighbour guilty of racist taunts

Ahmed Karbani, who is of Asian appearance, accused racist Christopher Roy Heppell of a three and-a-half year campaign of insults and intimidation in Oldman Court, Foxwood, York.

"I am on anti-depressants myself," Mr Karbani said at York Magistrates Court. "If it wasn't for my mother and sister, my life is not worth living, that is the way I feel."

Heppell, a white 59-year-old man, denied two charges of racial abuse and claimed he was not racist.

Giving evidence, he told magistrates how he got on well with a "black Johnny" who was "one of the elders of the tribe" and "secretary of a local mosque" and accused Mr Karbani as being an "outcast from his tribe". He claimed he was not a racist and had never abused Mr Karbani racially.

Shortly after his arrest, he told police he regarded Mr Karbani as an "anti-social b*****d".

His solicitor, Jacky East, said it was a dispute between two neighbours that did not get on, rather than racism.

But magistrates said Heppell's words were a strong indication of his feelings towards Mr Karbani and convicted him of using racial language on at least one occasion towards his neighbour between January 2002 and July 16, 2005. They acquitted Heppell of using racist abuse in an encounter between the two on July 17.

After the verdict, Heppell told magistrates: "I would like to appeal"

Mr Karbani accused Heppell of saying to him and his brother on July 17: "We want rid of all the blacks from this area. We want it to be an only white area," and "A white man can be black, but a black man will never be white".

Heppell, his wheelchair-bound wife, Carol, 51, and two of their friends gave evidence that he had not said those words.

He alleged the trouble between the two men began when Mr Karbani made an unjustified complaint to the police about the way Heppell had parked his company digger outside his house. Mr Karbani said he had made numerous complaints to the police, but could not remember one about a digger.

Magistrates adjourned sentence while a pre-sentence report is prepared. They bailed Heppell on condition he completely avoids Mr Karbani. The two men have lived in close proximity since the early 1980s.

:: Victim's catalogue of torment suffered

Mr Karbani's complaints, all of which Christopher Heppell denies, are:

Frequent racial abuse when Mr Karbani was outside the family home in Oldman Court

Installing a very bright security light that shone straight into Mr Karbani's sister's room

Taking a picture of Mr Karbani hosing dog muck off his drive

Standing in front of Mr Karbani with a pair of binoculars

Throwing his weight about in a way that meant no-one would stand up to him or give evidence against him

Damaging a car parked on the Karbani drive on July 17. There was no charge against Heppell for this and he says he was cooking dinner at the time

Driving a vehicle in a way that caused Mr Karbani's mother concern.

:: Misery of life as a race campaign victim

AHMED KARBANI told the court:

"I feel completely dehumanised. I am standing in front of my own property, minding my own business. I do not have any right to interfere with anybody else's lives and what they do. Why should anyone have any right to interfere with us?

"Because we are immigrants, they can treat us as if we have no rights whatsoever. It is as though we do not exist: like every time they have some frustration, they can come and take it out on us. That is their attitude.

"I feel very helpless because anything I do or not do is not going to produce any result. It is only going to escalate (the trouble). The only thing I can do is walk away."

"The effect is on my mother and sister.

"They have to take the brunt of it. They have to sit at home and take the brunt of it and ask 'Why?' I don't have the answer."

"He (Christopher Heppell) knows that if there will be any witnesses, they will be silent witnesses, so we are all alone.

"People will come and sympathise and say it is not right, but that is all."

Updated: 08:50 Monday, April 17, 2006