Man avoids jail after racist assault in Weston-super-Mare

Kai Easen, 22, of Haydon Wick, Swindon, appeared at Bristol Crown Court on Tuesday, September 1.

The court heard that three separate incidents took place close together in Weston-super-Mare on June 6, 2026.

Mr Elliot Gribble, prosecuting, said Easen confronted a taxi driver in the first incident.

Easen approached the vehicle and directed a ‘torrent of abuse’ at the driver, including the ‘p-word’ and the ‘n-word’.

The second victim was a 61-year-old woman who had filmed the first incident on her phone.

Mr Gribble said: “Upon the defendant realising he had been filmed, he pursued her and punched her in the head, which caused her to fall to the ground.”

He added: “She [was] essentially penned in; she doesn’t have the opportunity to escape the assault.”

“She has suffered a concussion. There has been a substantial impact.”

In her victim personal statement, she said: “I find it deeply upsetting to witness another member of the public being treated appallingly.”

“The incident has had significant physical, financial and emotional consequences for me.

“I was struck with great force to the side of my head, which caused me to lose consciousness.

“If another member of the public hadn’t intervened, I believe I would have sustained much more serious injuries.

“This assault was particularly traumatic. I suffered a significant head injury.”

She said the injury caused ‘severe bruising’ from her head to her neck, along with disorientation, dizziness, blurred vision, trouble concentrating and persistent ringing in her right ear.

She took five days off work, resulting in financial losses.

She said it had also ‘significantly affected’ her daily life.

She said: “The assault has left me feeling shaken and vulnerable. Since the assault I have found myself constantly looking over my shoulder when walking alone.

“It has had a lasting emotional impact.”

She added that, because of the effects of our ‘current racist society’, she is ‘constantly on edge’ around aggressive people in her community.

Mr Gribble said Easen then assaulted a man, putting him in a headlock and pulling him to the floor.

Prosecutors said the third incident happened during Easen’s arrest, when he directed a ‘torrent of abuse’ at a police officer and kicked them.

Defence barrister Christian Barrow read a character reference from Easen’s former employer, who said the incident was out of character.

Jonathan Hughes said: “When he first started with us, he had a lot to learn, but he has come on leaps and bounds.”

The court heard that Easen became a ‘good, reliable and hard-working’ team member whom Mr Hughes considered ‘respectful and willing to learn’.

He said: “I do not wish to minimise or excuse [his] comments, however having known and worked closely with Kai over the last two years, I can say this is completely out of character.”

He said Easen could move on, with a future and a job at the company because he believed in his ‘character and potential’.

Mr Barrow told the court that Easen ‘hasn’t really grown up yet’, had pleaded guilty early, was deeply remorseful and had written an apology to the police officer.

He said: “There is a significant degree of remorse.

“He accepted that the red mist had descended long before.”

Mr Barrow said the attack was impulsive, fuelled by Easen’s ‘unhealthy’ ideas about masculinity and his intoxication.

He said Easen had been told to be the ‘man of the house’ at aged 10.

He said: “It is an ugly offence.

“It was an unpleasant attack but one with the hallmarks of impulsive, spontaneous rage.

“[It was his] impulsivity exacerbated by the substances Mr Easen had exposed himself to.”

Mr Barrow added: “He has still felt the urge to drink, but to date he has managed not to act on it.”

The court also heard that Easen had stopped drinking since the incident and had ‘great rehabilitative potential’.

His Honour Judge Blair KC, the Honorary Recorder of Bristol, said: “I am going to pass a suspended prison sentence on you, but it is going to be a severe one.

“You have come a hair's breadth away from going straight to prison today, but I do understand that at 22 years of age, with some of the problems you have had by way of your background and some of your mental health issues, which you have struggled with handling, that there is an argument that you’re really still quite an immature 22-year-old who has quite a bit of growing up to do yet and has a lot to do with getting to grips with your temper when things get out of hand.

“You need to develop some capacity as to how you meet situations like this without behaving in the appalling fashion you did.”

He said Easen was ‘appallingly intoxicated’ when a victim began filming his ‘appalling behaviour in the street’, prompting him to ‘set upon her’ and ‘whack her’.

The court also heard that Easen had ‘important community ties’ and ‘prospects of becoming a good member of society’.

Easen was sentenced to 21 months in prison, suspended for 18 months.

He must also undergo nine months of mental health treatment, abstain from alcohol for 120 days and complete 20 rehabilitation activity days.

He must also pay a victim surcharge and the woman he assaulted £1,500 in compensation.

His Honour Judge Blair KC said: “You have got to keep out of trouble for 18 months. If you comply, all of this can be put behind you.”

“If you don’t, then I will have you back in front of me, and you can expect me to impose the prison sentence that is for now suspended.”

Easen also appeared in North Somerset Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, September 22 of this year.

Here he was sentenced after admitting to using threatening or abusive words or behaviour/disorderly behaviour that was racially aggravated within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress on June 6 of this year.

Easen was given a conditional discharge for this offence lasting 18 months and his guilty plea was taken into account.