A SCOT is struggling to eat five days after he was viciously attacked in an English town – for wearing a kilt.
Christopher Baxter was kicked in the head and body by thugs who ambushed him following a pub row.
The 35-year-old from Balloch, West Dumbartonshire, says the assault on Saturday left his jaw so swollen he still finds chewing painful.
Christopher said one of the attackers, who struck in Tideswell, Derbyshire, told him previously he should not be wearing a kilt in England.
Christopher moved to the Peak District village just three months ago after landing a job as an international sales executive job in Chesterfield.
He said: “I’m still sore and I ache all over. Still struggling to eat, with a swollen jaw. I received several kicks to the head, neck and ribs.
“I’ve still got cuts to the side of my head and ear, a bit of a black eye, and bruising across my chest and down one arm.”
Christopher said one of his attackers had a few weeks ago confronted him about wearing a kilt.
He said: “One particular young man, known in the village, and a regular at the village’s three pubs had already suggested some weeks previously that I ‘shouldn’t wear a kilt here’ because ‘this is England’.
“Not content to leave his ranting there, his alcohol-fueled discourse moved on to the European Referendum. Why would I, or anyone else, have voted Remain? Wasn’t I proud to be British? This topic then inexplicably, though perhaps predictably, merged into his next line of questioning: Scottish independence.
“Despite having a fairly obvious dislike of the Scottish in general, and particularly of Scotsmen who dare to wear a kilt in England, our subject went on to explain how the Scots are deluded, as we would be nothing without the English.”
Christopher said he laughed off the argument and bought the man a drink, thinking they had agreed to bury the hatchet.
Drinking in the same pub on Saturday, Christopher said he came across the “same guy, same little Englander discourse”.
He added: “Only this time he was with a couple of his mates. On leaving the establishment, the lad and his two mates followed me [and] decided to jump me from behind, explain to me rather forcefully their dislike for Scotsmen, and invite me to “f*** off back where I came from”.
Christopher said previously everyone had been very hospitable.
“Unfortunately, this idyllic image of the Peak District was shattered for me when I became the victim of a pre-meditated, sustained, and vicious assault in the centre of Tideswell village for having the audacity to wear a kilt.
“I spent the night in the company of the Accident & Emergency staff at Chesterfield Royal Hospital. I was lucky that a friend of mine was able to intervene and the assault wasn’t more serious.”
Derbyshire Police confirmed they were called to the High Street at 11.30pm on Saturday night but no arrests had been made yet.
Earlier this week a 20-year-old was sentenced to two years and nine months in a young offenders institute after attacking a Scottish police officer celebrating his stag do in York.
Alex Ogden told Constable David Stupart to “F*** off back to Scotland” before punching him in the face and using his belt as a weapon.
He pleaded guilty to charges of racially aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm, common assault, assaulting a constable and failing to surrender to custody.
