LONDON – A British court has rejected the bail plea of a teenage girl caught on video punching a 80-year-old Sikh man in the face and shoving him to the ground.
Coral Millerchip, 19, was arrested on Friday and charged with assault of the man at Coventry, a city northwest of London.
The British girl appeared before Coventry Magistrates Court yesterday and has been remanded to custody until November 25.
According to local media reports, defence lawyer Shane Hennigan’s plea that the accused be tried in the magistrates court was also turned down and it was ordered that she appear before Coventry Crown Court, which is designated for more serious offences.
Millerchip was arrested from an address outside of the West Midlands after police received reports that the Sikh man had been attacked in Coventry city centre on August 10.
She was traced to an address in Gloucester and taken to a West Midlands Police station.
The elderly victim was punched in the face and pushed to the ground, leaving him with a bloodied nose and black eye. Millerchip was also seen spitting on the victim and verbally abusing him.
A video of the assault, recorded by a passer-by on a mobile phone, was widely circulated on social media and created worldwide outrage.
Sikh organizations in India had demanded action by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Meanwhile, Coventry police are still keen to hear from people who witnessed the incident, which appears unprovoked.
They have also urged anyone who shared the video or still images of the assault to remove them from social media accounts as they could hinder the inquiry.
Closed circuit television (CCTV) in the British city of Coventry in West Midlands captured shocking footage of the woman attacking the elderly man, who can be seen making feeble attempts to defend himself.
The man’s turban fell off and the attack left him with a bloodied nose and black eye, British media reports said.
The woman abused the man and spat on him before walking off following the apparently unprovoked attack near a bus station in Coventry’s Trinity Street at 8.30pm on August 10.
The police arrested the woman after a video of the attack, recorded by a passer-by on a mobile phone, went viral online and was shared on Facebook.
The police are treating the attack as “serious malicious wounding”, which is punishable with up to five years in prison.
The video of the attack triggered a wave of revulsion after it was circulated widely on the social media, The Coventry Telegraph reported.
Coventry Police chief Andy Nicholson was quoted by the paper as saying, “This was a despicable, violent attack on an elderly man in broad daylight. The victim is an 80-year-old man, he was left with a bloodied nose and a black eye.”
Millerchip, the unemployed 19-year-old, is due to appear at Coventry Magistrates Court on Monday, the police said in a press release.
Millerchip, from Attoxhall Road in Wyken, was arrested from an address outside of the West Midlands.
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