By K T Chacko
News Editor

Mohamed al-Majed: died in a racially-motivated attack in Hastings

The killer of Mohamed al-Majed, a Qatari foreign language student, who died in a racially-motivated attack in Hastings in the UK about a year ago, was yesterday sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
During trial, George Austin, 22, of Bermondsey, London, denied manslaughter but he was found guilty by a jury at Lewes Crown Court on October 16 this year and was handed down the jail term yesterday.
The Hastings Observer newspaper quoted Judge Anthony Scott-Gall as saying that the 368 days Austin had already spent in custody would count toward the spell in jail.
“Under guidelines where convicts usually serve just half their term in prison, the killer could be out in just over a year,” the Observer noted.
According to sources, the sentence seemed to be lenient, considering the fact that a “guest student” had lost his life in a “gang attack” in the host country and the teenager’s death had traumatised his family.
Paul Rockett, of Ham Lane, Burwash, was also jailed yesterday afternoon after being found guilty of racially-aggravated common assault on Peter Henworth, a South African friend of Majed.
“He was given four months in prison and told he would likely serve just two,” the Observer said on its online edition.
A third defendant, Alexander Quinn, 19, of Mountbatten Close in Hastings, was ordered to spend the next two years in a young offenders institute after being found guilty of wounding another of the Qatari teenager’s  friends.
Delivering the sentence, the judge said he had found no evidence of racist beliefs in any of the three men, but said: “One of the unpleasant features of this case is what a sad indictment you are for the youth of Britain and in particular, Hastings.”
Majed was studying English at a language school in Hastings and had been staying with a family in the town for about five weeks before he died. He was due to have returned home a week later.
According to the prosecution, the trouble started when Austin’s co-defendant Rockett assaulted Majed’s friend, Peter Henworth, 17, because he was black.
Majed died two days after he sustained serious head injuries in the late night dispute outside a kebab shop in Hastings.
Mohamed Majed’s father Abdulla al-Majed had welcomed the “guilty” verdict when it was issued earlier this year. Majed’s family had flown into England from Qatar for the trial.
The suspects in the case were arrested after a long and painstaking investigation which took British officers across the world.
Austin had gone to Cyprus after the incident but was arrested when he flew back into Gatwick Airport last November. He has been in custody ever since.