Man jailed for racist rampage with secateurs asks if he will serve ‘half or 33%’

A man who went on a “violent and racist rampage” with a pair of garden secateurs near a college asked the judge jailing him if he would serve “half or 33%” of his sentence because of the early release prison scheme.

David Noutch, 32, injured two Bradford College security guards during the “abhorrent” incident which saw him shouting Islamophobic abuse at students and staff, and running at them with the secateurs while saying “I’ll stab them all”.

On Wednesday, Noutch was jailed for 37 months at Bradford Crown Court after pleading guilty to two charges of assault, one of which was racially aggravated, threatening someone with a weapon, and a racially aggravated public order offence.

After he was sentenced Noutch, who appeared on a videolink from prison, put his hand up and asked the judge: “With the new laws that have come in … am I to serve half or 33%? I’m a bit unsure.”

Recorder Palmer told Noutch his defence barrister would be able to advise him, but said the year he had already spent on remand would count towards his sentence.

The court heard that on October 9 last year, the day of the incident, Noutch had been drinking all night and slept rough in Bradford after missing his last train home.

At about 9am he was seen on CCTV approaching a group of Asian men and “shadow boxing” before hitting one of them.

The court heard the group retaliated, and Noutch was then surrounded by a group of students from nearby Bradford College who had told their security guards about the incident.

When the guards arrived Noutch was shouting racist and Islamophobic abuse at Asian students and staff.

The court heard that as the incident seemed to calm down, and some people started to walk away, Noutch took a pair of garden secateurs from his duffel bag and ran towards Asian members of staff saying “I’m going to stab them all”.

He assaulted two security guards as they tried to wrestle the weapon from him.

A victim personal statement from one of them said he had been stabbed in the knee during the incident, which had stopped him from playing football and caused him to gain weight and become depressed

He said he had suffered sleepless nights and struggled to do his job without taking regular breaks.

Another security guard said that as a British-born Pakistani Muslim, he had found the defendant’s comments “deeply upsetting”.

The court heard that when police arrived Noutch continued to shout racist abuse, including a comment that “P**** wanted world dominance.”

Jeremy Barton, mitigating for Noutch, said he had been “in a bad frame of mind” that day after sleeping rough, and had not had his prescribed medication.

He told the court: “He concedes his behaviour can only be described as disgraceful.”

Some 5,000 prisoners are scheduled to be released in stages over the next year, down from 6,000, as part of a Government scheme to free up