Council worker jailed for racist abuse and assaulting PC

A Swansea council worker who launched a vile racist tirade at people outside a city centre shop, then assaulted a police officer, has been jailed for eight months.

Kurtis Ball, 24, was working in his council uniform when he subjected shoppers at the Nisa store opposite Swansea’s High Street station to a barrage of racial abuse on September 5 this year. The Sketty man told people to “go back to your f****** country” and “f****** get back on the boats”, while also shouting “Wales!” and “F*** the f****** mosques”.

When a woman tried to calm the situation, Ball turned on her with abusive sexual language, calling her a “slag”.

Swansea Crown Court heard that when police arrived shortly before 6pm, they found Ball outside the nearby railway station “stumbling around and slurring his speech” in what officers described as a highly intoxicated state. Despite claiming he’d only had “a couple of beers” after work, Ball’s behaviour quickly escalated.

He continued using racist terms about people going to and from the station, becoming increasingly irate and resisting officers. His racist language persisted even after his arrest and during the journey to Swansea Central police station.

While waiting to be booked into custody, Ball threatened a PC and began to “square up” to him, warning: “You’re lucky these cuffs are on, otherwise I’ll go mad”. When officers had to restrain him and place him in a holding cell, Ball resumed his threats and racist language, kicking and headbutting the door. When an officer entered the cell to prevent him from harming himself, Ball kicked the PC in the leg.

The court heard Ball was already subject to a suspended sentence at the time of this offending. In September last year, he and his father Scott Ball had attacked staff and customers at the Eli Jenkins pub in Swansea when told they couldn’t take their pints outside onto the pavement. While his father produced a rock in a sock and swung the weapon around, Kurtis headbutted the landlord as the pair declared they could drink wherever they wanted.

Scott Ball – who has 84 previous offences on his record including eight for possessing offensive weapons or knives, as well as assault occasioning actual bodily harm and sexual assault – was jailed for the pub brawl. However, Kurtis received a six-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months, with the judge telling him: “You have the opportunity to be so much more than the example you have been shown.”

At the time of the pub incident, Scott Ball was on court bail ahead of a trial for racially abusing and chasing students in Swansea city centre whilst armed with a knife, telling them to “go home” – offending for which he was subsequently jailed for two years.

Jon Tarrant, defending, said Ball was remorseful for his actions and wished to apologise to those concerned, suggesting it may be that “the ghosts of his father resurfaced”.

Judge Paul Thomas KC told Ball he had subjected people to “a prolonged horrible racist and sexist stream of insults of the worst type” while on a suspended sentence. The judge said that over the last 15 months Ball’s behaviour had been “out of control”, noting that since being arrested and bailed over the September offending, he had been arrested on further occasions for other offending.

Judge Thomas added: “You simply have learned nothing. You have run out of chances.”

Ball, formerly of Llwyncelyn Avenue, Pontarddulais, but now of Birchtree Close, Sketty, had pleaded guilty to racially-aggravated disorderly behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm, or distress and to assaulting a constable. He has seven previous convictions for 11 offences including public disorder, possession of cannabis, battery, possession of cannabis with intent to supply, criminal damage, drug-driving, and being drunk and disorderly.

With one-third discounts for his guilty pleas, Ball was sentenced to three months in prison for the racially-aggravated public disorder and to two months for assaulting a PC to run consecutively, making five months in custody. The judge sentenced Ball to three months for breaching the suspended sentence to run consecutively with the sentence for the new offending, making an overall sentence of eight months in prison. He will serve no more than half of the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.