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Killers sentenced

01 January 1991

Killers sentenced
artdoc April=1992

In the cases of both Kuldip Singh Sekhon and Tasleem Akhtar,
judges have ruled that no racial motive played a part in their
deaths.
Twenty-one year-old Stephen Coker, who stabbed Southall
mini-cab driver Kuldip Singh Sekhon fifty times, was sentenced
to life at the Old Bailey. Although it emerged at the trial that
Coker, soon after the murder had said `I have just killed a wog',
Mr. Justice Judge said that `there is no evidence that this was
carried out as a racist attack. The colour of the man had nothing
to do with it.'
A 16-year-old youth, Lee Costello, who beat 11 -year-old
Tasleem Akhtar to death with a brick whilst she was on her way
home from Sparkhill, Birmingham, was sentenced to be detained at
Her Majesty's pleasure. Mr. Mohammed Iqbal, Tasleem's father,
believes that the murder was racist as Costello had a reputation
for attacking other Asian children.
During the trial of Stephen Coker, leaflets were distributed
outside the court and the judge postponed the trial on the
grounds that the leaflets would prejudice the jury. (Asian Times
31.7.90)

Institute of Race Relations, Police-Media Bulletin, no 63