Last February, Alex Kosuth–Phillips was subjected to a vicious and unprovoked attack outside a pizza shop in Birmingham, where he had been out celebrating his 23rd birthday. His jaw was broken in two places and he had two metal plates inserted into his face. For three months he was drinking with a straw. The culprits apparently took exception to his ginger hair. The story is in the news now because earlier this week, police released CCTV footage of the incident in an attempt to catch the assailants, who remain at large.
Also in February last year, two men were convicted at Southampton Crown Court of a “frenzied and sustained” assault on a red-haired man in New Milton, Hampshire. The attack, which was again quite unprovoked, began with “gingerist” insults hurled at the victim, James Prior, from a car. In another case ten years ago, a young man was stabbed in a West Yorkshire wine bar “after an argument over his ginger hair.” Redheads have also been the target of sustained harassment. In 2007, for example, the Chapman family of Newcastle hit the headlines after suffering “years of taunts, smashed windows and violence” and being forced to flee several homes.
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