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Boy's fight to prove attack by Asian gang was racist

A white schoolboy left for dead by a hammer-wielding gang of Asians has insisted the attack was racially motivated.

Fifteen-year-old Henry Webster was assaulted by a gang of 13 youths, one carrying a claw hammer, on a school tennis court in January 2007.

The attack, which was watched by 100 pupils and filmed on a mobile phone, was described in court as like 'something out of a Quentin Tarantino film'. It was said to be a 'miracle' the boy survived.

The attackers were sentenced to between eight months and eight years last year, but they would likely have got longer if the attack had been proven to be racist.

But only after two years of sustained pressure from Henry's mother, Liz, have the authorities announced a serious case review.

Henry, now 17, told Channel 4 News last night he believed the attack was 'racially motivated'.

He said he was disappointed no one was charged with a race crime and that the attack had 'ruined his life'.

Mrs Webster, 44, also believes the assault - by a gang calling themselves the Asian Invaders - was racist and the result of simmering tensions at the school.

She said: 'I have fought hard to find out all the facts. It has been an excruciating wait. The fact is that the attack on my son was a racial one.

'There have been numerous similar attacks before but nothing was ever done. I feel my son was badly failed by a school that believes racism is only something that is carried out by white pupils.'

The review will also examine why there were no staff present at the scene of the attack at Ridgeway School in Wroughton, Swindon.

The serious case review will not seek to apportion blame but will investigate what happened and evaluate the lessons that can be learned. It will last four months.

Swindon council referred the case to its Local Safeguarding of Children Board, which has sanctioned the review.