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'Entrenched racist' jailed for attack on black woman  

Melvyn Howe
Tuesday 11 June 2002 00:00 BST

An "entranched racist" who viciously attacked a black woman on her doorstep was jailed for six and a half years yesterday. Andrew Dickson, 37, a convicted rapist with a hatred of women, swore at the judge and taunted his victim with racial abuse from the dock, leaving her in tears, .

He was still shouting as security officers hustled him to the cells below Southwark Crown Court, London. The jury had heard his unprovoked attack on Diane Edwards, who has two children, came after an evening he had spent at his sister's home next door.

A racist tirade through her letter-box was followed with threats to bomb her and her family. When Ms Edwards tried to drive him from her doorstep with a mop, she was punched to the ground and kicked repeatedly.

Her screams were heard by Dickson's brother-in-law John Campbell, who pulled Dickson off her. The attacker fled and the woman was taken to hospital and treated for bruises and shock.

Glasgow-born Dickson, who had just been released from a five-year term for rape, was arrested later after a brief struggle with officers.

He had claimed at an earlier trial that he acted in self-defence. He has 23 previous court appearances for 35 assorted offences. Yesterday the jury took less than an hour to convict him of racially aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Dickson, of Hackney, east London, sacked his legal team and unleashed abuse when Judge McMullen passed sentence. Swearing repeatedly, he shouted: "I don't care what you do. It doesn't matter what you say to me. Do what you have to do and get on with it."

The judge told him: "The reports of the probation service and the psychiatrist indicate you are an entrenched racist with deep-seated anti-social attitudes towards black people and towards women."

Dickson had told his probation officer he wanted to kill women after he had been released on parole from his jail term for rape, the judge said. He was put back behind bars.

Dickson repeatedly shouted at the judge: "She was the one who smashed me with a brush on my head. I don't care what you say." After he had been taken to the cells, the judge told Ms Edwards: "I regret you had to put up with that abuse."

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