Woman jailed over racist shopkeeper attack loses appeal

A woman jailed for a racially-motivated assault on a shopkeeper has lost an appeal against her sentence.

Charlene Coyle, 40 of Mimosa Court in Londonderry, was sentenced to five months in prison at the city’s magistrate’s court earlier this year following the assault in 2024.

At Londonderry’s County Court on Monday Judge Neil Rafferty dismissed her appeal.

The judge described the original sentence as “entirely appropriate”.

A prosecuting barrister told the judge Coyle had entered the shop on the city’s Strand Road at 03:00 BST on 31 March 2024 and threw a large quantity of stock onto the floor.

“She entered the shop in an aggressive manner and punched the shopkeeper three times in the face during which she uttered several racist comments”, the prosecutor said.

“When arrested and when in custody she spat in the eye of the police officer”, she added.

A defence barrister said since her release Coyle, who has eighteen previous convictions, had complied with bail conditions and had engaged with professional addiction counsellors.

The bail conditions, she added, provided Coyle with a helpful structured aspect to her lifestyle.

Dismissing the appeal, Judge Rafferty said Coyle had been convicted of a “racially motivated assault on a hard working shopkeeper who was simply trying to earn a living”

The judge also referred to the incident in which she spat into the eye of a police officer.

“Both the shopkeeper in his premises and the police officer were providing necessary services to the community,” the judge said.

The five-month sentence also included a four-month concurrent sentence when Coyle was convicted of threatening to kill a neighbour in August 2022.