Leeds flasher with 'dreadful' record threatened to smash tin of food over support worker's head

Convicted sex offender Majid Khan, 38, also spat in a police officer’s face and threatened to smash up a pharmacy in a catalogue of offending. He appeared at Leeds Crown Court on Friday to be sentenced for 12 crimes.

On May 16, 2022, police officers were sent to a Harehills shop following reports of an intoxicated man and woman threatening to “mash the shop up”. Khan and the woman were found nearby on Ashton Road and while the woman was erratic, at that point Khan was trying to calm her down.

The police gave them a warning and left. Later that day, another report came in that the pair had returned to the shop and thrown ice cream. The woman was arrested and an officer told the defendant he would be searched and took away his bank card.

At this point, Khan attempted to grab the card back and shouted a torrent of abuse at the officers, including racial slurs. Prosecuting the case, Gabrielle Wilks said he spat in one of the officer’s faces and tried to spit again, making a “hacking sound” to draw up saliva.

He was restrained and arrested, which angered him further and he shouted more abuse and racial slurs at the officers. He was convicted of two counts of common assault on an emergency worker and two counts of racially aggravated harassment for those offences.

On March 1 this year, a support worker went to Harehills Road with a colleague to drop off a food parcel to Khan. The court was told that Khan mistook the colleague for a police officer and said: “Who the f*** is this?”

He grew agitated and told the man he would “smash your head in”, before grabbing his lanyard off his neck. He then attempted to grab the food parcel and threatened to get a tin of food and smash it over the man’s head.

Eventually a member of the public calmed him down, and he was given the food parcel. Khan was convicted of common assault for that offence.

On March 3, Khan tested positive for cocaine and was booked in for a drug assessment - which he failed to attend on March 23. He was convicted of failing to attend or remain for initial assessment.

On March 6, Khan attended a pharmacy on Lincoln Green Road at least five times to enquire about his medication, which he was repeatedly told had not arrived. Ms Wilks said he became “aggressive and irritated” and threatened the members of staff. He picked up a chair and said he would “smash the place up” when staff said they were calling the police.

When police arrived and searched Khan, they found he had a small amount of cannabis. He was convicted of two counts of using threatening words or behaviour with intention to cause fear of serious violence and possession of a class B drug for personal use.

Due to a conviction of indecent exposure in December 2020, Khan is a registered sex offender and has to regularly inform the police of his address. He failed to attend Elland Road in May 21 and June 7 and was convicted of two counts of breaching notification requirements. He was also convicted of two counts of failing to surrender to police or court bail.

In mitigation, Martin Morrow said Khan lost his wife and unborn child around 10 years ago, which had a “devastating impact” on him and he struggled to control his emotions. This has had a “knock-on effect”, Mr Morrow added, leading to periods of homelessness and the misuse of drugs and alcohol.

Mr Morrow said: “He’s spoken to me about how sorry he is about how he behaved. He accepts there are issues that need to be resolved.”

The judge, Recorder Bryan Cox KC, said that he had to impose an immediate prison sentence due to Khan’s poor record of anti-social behaviour.

Recorder Cox said: “You have in recent years suffered tragedy, and I have no doubt that that has had an impact on you. But the difficulty is this - you have a dreadful record for anti-social behaviour and in particular drink-related behaviour.

“In the past, you have not responded to non-custodial options. I’m not able to have confidence at the present time that you would respond to non-custodial, therapeutic help now.

“This is a persistent catalogue of offending, in relation to serious antisocial behaviour of one sort or another. And so it’s not possible to avoid an immediate prison sentence.”

Khan, of no fixed address, was jailed for 16 months in total.