Anjem Choudary associate jailed for Upton Park schoolboy attack
Michael Coe, 35, has been handed a 28-month jail sentence for attacking a 16-year-old in Wilson Road, Upton Park. - Credit: Archant
A Muslim convert who knocked a schoolboy unconscious for cuddling his girlfriend has been jailed for 28 months.
Michael Coe, who was an associate of hate preacher Anjem Choudary, already had a long record of violent offences when he attacked a 16-year-old schoolboy in Wilson Road, Upton Park, for publicly hugging a 16-year-old girl.
He was convicted in August at Southwark Crown Court for assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) and common assault of a 31-year-old man who witnessed the attack.
Coe, 35, had been driving through the borough on April 15 when he spotted the pair on the pavement.
The married father-of-two, stopped the car he was driving, demanded to know if they were Muslims and then called the girl a name implying she was promiscuous.
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He then grabbed the boy by the throat and threw him to the ground before kicking his head as he lay there, leaving him unconscious and bleeding from two head injuries.
Passing schoolteacher Boutho Siwela who tried to come to the boy’s aid was also attacked by 6ft 1in Coe, who weighs 16 and a half stone yet claimed he he was acting in self defence.
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Prosecutor Jonathan Polnay said the victim had been left frightened of older men.
He said: He feels the offence has affected his life quite a lot. He doesn’t see his friends outside of school.
“He has also split up with the girl who was his girlfriend at the time.”
He added: “He said he is now worried and scared of older men and what they might do.
“He says he doesn’t know the man who did this to him and he is very scared for his life if he was to come in contact with him again, because the attack on him was so random.”
Coe, of Devenish Road, Greenwich, has committed a previous string of offences including assaults, burglary, robbery and violent disorder.
He was sentenced to two years for the ABH and four months for the assault to run consecutively.
Additional reporting by Press Association.
