Plaistow attack: Court sentencing delayed

The sentencing of a man who was captured on CCTV knocking a 16-year-old girl unconscious in the street will take place at the end of the month.

Michael Ayoade, 34, of Greengate Street in Plaistow, appeared at Inner London Crown Court today for sentencing after earlier pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm after an attack on the teenager outside the Black Lion pub as she was walking to college on November 13.

At an earlier hearing on November 23, Thames Magistrates’ Court heard he told police after the attack that the young woman “didn’t have a friendly face”, that he was “intimidated by her” because she “made me feel like a pauper with her facial gestures” and he couldn’t take “an insult from a little person like that”.

CCTV footage of the incident - seen all over the globe - showed how the victim, also from Plaistow, was approached from behind and struck over the head on High Street, unconscious before she hit the ground.

Ayoade has also pleaded guilty to possession of a class B drug after a small bag of cannabis was found.

The case was adjourned until January 28 at a London crown court to be fixed.