Knife-wielding asylum seeker Osman Haron targeted teen girls in Thatcham town centre
A KNIFE-wielding asylum seeker terrorised two 13-year-old girls and menaced a woman with a broken bottle.
The 19-year-old Sudanese refugee later bit a police officer while hurling racist abuse.
The horrifying incident happened in The Broadway, Thatcham, on May 26.
In the dock at Reading Crown Court on Thursday, September 11, was Osman Haron, who lived nearby.
David Tremain, prosecuting, said that the girls were sat together eating chips when Haron approached and asked how old they were.
When they told him they were aged 13, he replied: “I would, but you’re too young.”
Nevertheless, the court heard, he returned moments later with a kebab and sat down next to them.
Mr Tremain said: “The girls describe being frightened at that stage.”
Haron then stood up and they noticed he had a knife beneath his foot which he was dragging along.
The girls fled and one called her mother to collect them in her car.
Mr Tremain said: “Her sister in the car described the defendant waving a knife around.”
Witnesses then saw Haron pick up a glass bottle and smash it, brandishing the jagged edge outside The King’s Head pub.
Mr Tremain said: “Assistant manager Danielle Lewis recognised him from before.
“He said: ‘I’ve come back for you.’
“Petrified, she ran inside and locked the door behind her.”
Witnesses flagged down a police car and officers chased Haron down an alleyway before they could apprehend him.
Mr Tremain said police noticed a laceration on Haron’s ear and took him to hospital where he continued to racially abuse them so much he had to be removed in consideration of other patients.
It was then he bit one officer on the arm so hard his teeth broke the skin.
Haron later gave a “no comment” police interview.
He admitted possessing a knife, affray, assaulting a police officer and obstructing or resisting police.
Haron also has four previous convictions and has been charged with racially aggravated harassment and assault causing actual bodily harm, the court heard.
He admitted his latest offending meant he was in breach of a conditional discharge for a public order offence committed in Newbury.
The court was told Haron had consumed 18 pints that day and was also using cannabis.
Mark Kimsey, defending, said his client felt isolated because he was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the country without any family aged just 16.
He added: “They thought he would have a better life here than in Sudan but he has had no one to mentor or guide him.”
He received just £73 per week; he had fallen in with the wrong crowd and begun abusing alcohol and drugs, he added.
That prompted Judge Rachel Drake to query how he could afford to drink 18 pints that day.
Mr Kimsey reiterated that alcohol was “some sort of coping mechanism for his isolation”.
Haron was concerned his latest offending could affect his claim for asylum in the UK, the court heard.
Judge Drake remarked that the offences happened just three weeks after his conditional discharge for being drunk and disorderly in Newbury.
She told Haron: “You were drunk and approached two 13-year-old girls who you didn’t know; your behaviour was peculiar and intimidating to them…you had a knife in some way attached to the bottom of your shoe.
“They had the good sense to run away.”
She reminded him he had terrorised the pub manager and that he had been racially abusive and violent towards police.
Judge Drake acknowledged Haron’s relative youth but pointed out that a probation report warned he posed a “significant risk” of causing harm in future.
Judge Drake branded his offending “deeply concerning” and said: “I have a duty to protect the public.”
She sentenced Haron to 30 weeks in a Young Offenders Institution, 40 per cent of which will be served locked up and the remainder on licence in the community - and all minus the time he has spent on remand.
Judge Drake acknowledged: “I anticipate your release will be very soon.”
* THAMES Valley Police has a policy of releasing custody photos of any defendant given an immediate custodial sentence unless there are safeguarding issues.
A photo has been requested but has not, so far, been provided.
