A caretaker who says he is Jewish and was charged with pushing anti-Semitic British Member of Parliament George Galloway in the face last Friday has been remanded to prison, without bail, after pleading not guilty .
Neil Masterson, a former manager for the BBC, allegedly assaulted Galloway when the MP was posing for pictures. Galloway was hospitalized for broken ribs and bruises, including a lump on his head, before being released the following day.
The prosecutor in the case told the court that the Jewish suspect told police, “I didn’t want him to think I’m scared, Galloway is anti-Semitic, and I am Jewish.” However, a post on his Facebook page states he is Catholic.
He is a caregiver for a middle-aged woman, and his defense lawyer told the court that she “would be lost without him.”
One tweet called him a “Zionist terrorist.”
Masterson pleaded not guilty to the charge of an assault that was “religiously aggravated” on Galloway, who recently declared that the city of Bradford that he presents will be an “Israel-free zone.” Police have investigated Galloway for the remarks.
The court denied Masterson bail, and his trial is scheduled for later this month.
Galloway is far from the most popular politician in Britain and is such an embarrassment to the government that the assault was ignored by politicians.
The silence led a London Telegraph columnist to complain, “Galloway has received no public message of sympathy from a single MP from any party – nothing from Speaker Bercow, from the Prime Minister, or from any of the other elected political leader.“
The writer called the assault an ”attack on democracy,” but public figures apparently figure Britain was better off with Galloway out of action, even if for only a day.