Evening Standard/London

An Army hero who was savagely beaten after returning to the UK from fighting in Afghanistan was banned from wearing his medals at their trial in case his bravery influenced the jury.
Corporal Mark Kershaw, 27, had just got back from his third tour of duty in Helmand province with Operation Herrick 18 when he was head-butted and kicked to the ground in the cowardly attack.
He was targeted after trying to stop a woman and two drunken men who were verbally abusing a senior taxi warden on George Street in Hull town centre.
The suspects were subsequently arrested and during their trial at Hull Crown Court this week, Kershaw was told by defence barrister Ian Stuart-Brook that he should remove his Afghanistan campaign medal and Jubilee medal from “public sight”.
The lawyer argued that he should not be wearing them in public because “it would have an unfair effect on the jury underlining his status as a decorated soldier”.
Judge Mark Bury, agreed, despite Kershaw’s protest that he had been given permission to wear the medals by a senior officer at his Household Cavalry unit in Windsor in the seven days before Remembrance Sunday.
Kershaw, who was commended for his bravery in Afghanistan, arrived each day with his medals but was forced to take them off and put them in his pocket after the judge ruled the ban should remain in place for the entire four days of the trial.
Despite the ban on his medals, the two defendants who kicked the soldier to the ground were allowed to wear poppies in court during the trial.
The decision sparked outrage among Kershaw’s family and war veterans.
Kershaw told the court from the witness stand how his was attacked on his first night out after returning from a seven-month tour of duty of Afghanistan on November 23 last year.
The special unit solider had completed tours of Afghanistan in 2007, 2009 and 2013 - a total of 22 months - and had been commended for bravery.
During the conflict, he was caught up in a bomb explosion and now has shrapnel embedded next to his spine. Four of his friends also died during the tours.
The corporal said he was waiting in a taxi queue in Hull town centre when he was head-butted by a woman and then jumped on by two men who were with her.
He said he had been waiting in the taxi queue when the woman, Beverley Logen, 27, began abusing a taxi marshal.
“People were watching what was happening and doing nothing,” Kershaw told the court.
“I was trying to be a peacemaker. I saw him getting verbally abused. I told her to let him do his job.
“The next thing I knew, was she turned around and head-butted me in the face. My nose exploded. I went to the ground and people stamped on my head and kicked me.”
Logen, who has previous convictions for assault, pleaded guilty on her first appearance in court.
However, her husband Craig Hood, 27, of Burton-upon-Stather, near Scunthorpe, and Lee Wareham, 34, of Gateshead, both denied causing Kershaw actual bodily harm and went on trial this week.Taxi marshall Alistair Storey told the jury. “I have never in my life witnessed anything like it.
“The woman just put her head back and head-butted him. His nose just exploded.
“All three of them started kicking him and raining punches. They were screaming: “Let’s have him!”
‘All three of them stamped on him and kicked him. Both males stamped on him when he was on the floor. It was a cowardly trick.’
Eyewitness Lewis Foster said: ‘All he said was “let him do his job”.
“The girl head-butted Mark in the face. The two men came round fists flying in Mark’s direction.”
Both men were unanimously convicted after the four-day trial and Judge Bury told them: ‘You have both been convicted of a nasty attack on a man who was concerned about the level of abuse Beverley Logen was using on a person doing his public duty.
“I am satisfied, that although Beverley Logen started this, you both played a part.
“In particular this involved punching and kicking someone who was doing nothing more than standing up for someone else.
“You Hood have a conviction for threatening behaviour. You must both understand you are at risk of being sent to prison. That must follow when there was this level of violence.” The judge deferred sentencing until December 12.
After the trial, Kershaw revealed how he had been asked not to speak to the press because of security concerns for his unit’s future operations in the wake of the heightened terror threat.
Hull Royal British Legion veteran Charles Jenneson said it was a disgrace the corporal had been banned from wearing his medals.
He said: ‘They are the Queen’s medals and he was giving evidence in the Queen’s Court.
“The Judge was wrong to make him take them off. He would not have dreamed of asking a World War Two veteran to remove them.’
Kershaw’s uncle, Alan Kershaw, 47, said he was also outraged that his nephew had been told to remove his medals.
“It’s an absolute disgrace,’ the lorry driver said.
“Mark has earned those medals and he fully expected to be able to wear them in court.
“He has been shot at, blown up, and seen four of his friends killed in Afghanistan. He has given first-aid to wounded Afghans and been mentioned in dispatches for his bravery.
“Yet the jury was told none of this. He came to the court as a victim of crime and he was treated like this. This man has fought for his country and has seen men die. He should be allowed to wear them.
“I know he wanted to show his support to the old boys who are wearing them. He won’t be able to return to his Remembrance parade in Windsor, this Sunday because he has been in court all week, so he got permission to wear them in court.
“He doesn’t wear them in the street. It has just added insult to injury. I was livid when I heard he was attacked on his first night out from Afghanistan.
“The word cowardly rightly sums them up. I am glad they got him when he was on the ground. He would have made a real mess of them if he had wanted to fight.’
Shipley Tory MP Philip Davies added: “It is appalling that a judge ordered a war hero to remove the medals he won so bravely serving his country.
“Soldiers should be free to wear their war medals at all times. This soldier was not on trial, he was the victim of a crime, and the wearing of his medals had no bearing on the guilt or innocence of the defendant.
“If the judge thinks that the jury are so stupid that they cannot see past the medals of a victim to determine the guilt or innocence of someone else then perhaps he shouldn’t be a judge at all.’
Meanwhile Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart agreed the judge’s decision was wrong.
He said: “If it is true that the thugs were allowed to wear poppies, while a soldier, a victim, was forced to hide the symbols of his heroism in open court, then it is a disgrace.
“We can’t allow this perversion where thugs rights are sacrosanct and decent people’s rights are trampled upon. If that is the culture in some court then it needs to change and change urgently.