Prank results in community service for ‘callous’ barber

A BARBER who callously shaved the word “fool” in inch-high letters on to the back of the head of a man with learning difficulties has been handed a community order.

Michael Campbell, 35, was told he would have to complete 200 hours of

unpaid work over 18 months after he was found guilty of common assault for cutting the offensive slogan into his customer’s hair.

Michael Ricketts, 49, was described to the court as a “vulnerable adult” with non-specific severe learning disabilities.

Campbell appeared at Bristol Magistrates’ Court yesterday wearing a long, blue pin-striped jacket and showed little emotion as he was sentenced.

Chairman of the bench, Richard Barry, told Campbell it was “a gratuitous degradation” of his victim, whom he knew to have learning difficulties.

He was also ordered to pay £300 (€350) in compensation and £775 in court costs.

Unbeknown to Ricketts, who paid £7 to have a pattern cut, Campbell — who has no formal qualifications in hairdressing — shaved the word “fool” and added a smiley face.

The court was told that the incident had been “very upsetting” for the victim’s “elderly and frail” mother, who cares for her son.

The court heard her face “changed” and “her head dropped” when she found out what had happened.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Ricketts’ brother, Steve Fairweather, described Campbell’s actions as “callous, cruel and damaging”.

He said his brother was “very gentle and trusting” and Campbell had taken advantage of an “easy target”.

Fairweather said: “I was shocked and angry whenI first found out what happened to my brother.

The barber had claimed that during the 20-minute haircut, he shaved the word “cool” and it had been misinterpreted.

But three separate witnesses told the court they had seen the word “fool” on the Jamaican man’s head.

Gary Crowther, defending, told the court that Campbell was a “hard- working man” who had no previous convictions.