A DRUNKEN thug who verbally abused and then physically attacked two young women in Carlisle has been jailed.

After encountering the women by chance in Warwick Road as they walked home on the evening of July 29 last year, Kelton Lee, 24, first wolf-whistled them and then he began verbally abusing them, at times using vile racist language.

He repeatedly yelled racial insults at one of the women, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

At one point, the Pirelli worker called one of the women “scum” and when they challenged him, asking why he was behaving so terribly towards them, he turned violent.

He first threw punches at the woman he racially abused, but none of the blows connected. Lee then pulled her to the ground, causing her head to hit concrete, leaving her grazed.

When her friend saw this happen, she tried to intervene but Lee head-butted her several times, prosecutor Robert Wyn-Jones told the court. “This caused her to fall to the floor and she suffered a broken nose,” said the barrister. Lee fled from the scene as bystanders arrived to help the women. 

The defendant, of Middleton, Rochdale, admitted two counts of assault causing actual bodily harm, one of those charges being racially aggravated. Mr Wyn-Jones outlined the devastating impact of the attacks – particularly on the victim whose nose was broken.

As a result of what happened, she was diagnosed with post traumatic stress, the violence having left her feeling “extremely anxious” and suffering panic attacks.

She needed time off work and had to be prescribed sleeping tablets. The woman reported how while at work she was approached by two men who simply wanted to ask for directions.

She had a panic attack.

The woman said: “I was unable to sleep for four days following the assaults… I had to see an ear, nose and throat consultant to get my nose fixed as it had been broken.

“I had to buy make-up to cover the bruising… I should not have to be scared and be in fear of being assaulted.” In a second statement, the woman said she continues to have specialist treatment for the injury she suffered to her nose.

She is now receiving therapy help her cope with the psychological fallout.

Daniel Bramhall, defending, said the defendant's memory of the night was a "blur".

“He was out with his friend,” said the barrister. “On the night, he perhaps had too much to drink, which led to him making a very, very poor decision. He acknowledges that it's no excuse that he was intoxicated.

“The tone of his pre-sentence report is one of shame; he's absolutely mortified by his actions and accepts he let himself down and his family, who are in court. He bitterly regrets what he has done and wants both of the victims to know that he is deeply sorry for what he has done.

“He says he can’t imagine what they are going through.” Mr Bramhall added that the prosecution had scuppered Lee's hope of becoming a Royal Navy weapons engineer.

Judge Nicholas Barker commented on the "abhorrent" racial nature of the abuse, and how Lee wolf-whistled the women, showing a misogynistic tendency.

What happened left the women feeling intimidated.

The judge accepted that the defendant – who said stress was partly to blame for his behaviour – was remorseful but, for such a racially aggravated attack in the city centre on two unsuspecting women, only an immediate jail term was appropriate, said the judge. He jailed Lee for 18 months.

A man with no previous convictions, Lee was close to tears as he was led away to start his jail sentence.