EXCLUSIVE By STEPHEN RYLANCE

A PARISH councillor who has campaigned for multi-racial equality for more than 40 years has been targeted in his home by racist thugs.

For four months, the councillor and his family have been subjected to racist abuse and had their Great Sankey home pelted with stones by teenage bigots.

Stones and mud have been hurled at their windows by a gang of youths aged between 16 and 19, who have subjected him and his family to obscene abuse and told them to "go home."

He has also been targeted while taking evening strolls near his home.

The councillor, who stepped down this year as chairman of Warrington Multicultural Forum but remains an active member, is too afraid to be named for fear of reprisals.

He has withdrawn his phone number from council lists and says he is too intimidated to be identified as a spokesman for the Forum.

But he is encouraging the victims of racist attacks to come forward and report them to the police.

He said: "I am very worried - some of these people are animals. But if it's happening to me it could be happening to somebody else. Many people who face this kind of problem don't speak out about it. They have this idea that it's no use going to the police, but these days they take it very seriously and in my case, they have acted on it."

Police in Sankey began patrolling the streets to contain the problem until, in the past two weeks, the attacks have relented. But police are concerned that the problem will simply move elsewhere.

This is not the first time the councillor has been targeted by racists. Several years ago, he recieved death threats from thugs who had heard of his involvement in the Multicultural Forum.

He said: "Two young skinheads came to the door and asked for me. When my wife asked what they wanted, they said, 'We're going to kill him.' The police said I was very lucky I was not in, otherwise they may have carried out their threat."

Since the councillor settled in England in 1958, he has worked tirelessly to champion the rights of ethnic minorities, and was a founder member of the North West Racial Equality Council.

He has helped other members of the town's ethnic community deal with racist attacks, including the firebombing of shops.

He added: "Warrington is not like other towns and cities. It has a small ethnic community and generally it's fairly quiet. But there is racism here and these things do happen."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.