Swansea man jailed for racist assault in family home

A Swansea man who broke into a family home in the early hours, racially abused the occupants and assaulted them has been jailed for 90 weeks.

Michael Cummings, 27, entered his victims’ home at around 3am on April 30. The father woke to find the front door slightly ajar and discovered the defendant asleep on his son’s bedroom floor.

When the father tried to wake Cummings and ask him to leave, Cardiff Crown Court heard on Tuesday that he became verbally aggressive and racist. He said: “Move you c***” and “I’ll kill you P***”. The defendant tried to kick the father, pulled on his toes and feet and bit him on the foot.

With the assistance of his teenage son, the father tried to hold Cummings down. He was told to leave but responded “Leave me alone you P*** c***.”

Prosecutor Harry Dickens said the father begged for the defendant to leave but he said he would come back and kill him. Cummings attempted to kick out at the son and knocked his hand on the wall, causing him injury.

He continued to racially abuse the victims, calling them “brown c****”. The father feared for his family’s safety and said it felt like “forever” for the police to arrive.

When officers arrived at 3.29am, the defendant continued his tirade. When arrested, he said: “Right because of the colour of my skin, my f****** skin. Filthy c***, dirty c****, racist c****, because of the colour of my skin.”

When asked his name, Cummings responded: “Michael f****** prejudice”. He said he was in a “minority” and said “now there are f****** dirty c**** in our country, disgusting, f****** disgusting”.

Cummings, of Emlyn Road, Mayhill, later pleaded guilty to two counts of racially/religiously aggravated assault. The court heard he has two previous convictions for robbery and a public order offence.

In a victim personal statement read to the court, the father said: “I have suffered emotionally and fear for my family’s safety, I feel violated, uncomfortable and unsafe. Even now when I get ready for bed, I fear someone will get into my house again. It caused me a lot of stress, I had constant anxiety and struggled to sleep. I played the incident in my head repeatedly, I had a loss of appetite, I’m on edge and occupied by the incident. Since then I rarely leave my house except for doctors appointments and dropping the children off at school. I fear I will become the target of racist abuse, I was extremely humiliated, offended, hurt and upset.”

The son said he felt “frightened and scared” and played out what happened “over and over in his head”. The incident caused him to struggle to sleep, which affected his education.

In mitigation, Andrew Evans said his client wished to apologise to the victims and was “embarrassed and ashamed” of his actions. The barrister said alcohol may have been a trigger for his behaviour.

Sentencing, Judge Paul Hobson said: “Your behaviour was completely repugnant and totally out of control. Racism is nothing less than a stain on our society.”

Cummings was sentenced to 90 weeks imprisonment.