Putney Man Convicted of Shouting Homophobic Abuse At Dog Walkers

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Receives community order after incident on Barnes Common last year


image - ©Andrew Wilson twitter.com/AndrewPics

A 29-year-old man from Putney has been given a community order after shouting homophobic abuse at dog walkers on Barnes Common.

Robbie Wohanka was convicted of one count of assault by beating, and one of using threatening/abusive/insulting words at Wimbledon Magistrates Court. He was sentenced to an 18-month community order this Tuesday (4 April) , with a 200 hour unpaid work requirement over the incidents which took place in March and April 2016.

Mr Wohanka shouted the abuse in attempt to scare him off Barnes Common and assaulted another man has been sentenced to an 18-month community order.

The court increased sentence after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) successfully argued that the offences were motivated partly or wholly by the victim's perceived sexual orientation. The community order would have been 12 months and the unpaid work requirement 150 hours without the uplift.

London CPS reviewing lawyer Robert Short said, "Robbie Wohanka aggressively confronted walkers on Barnes Common because he believed they were gay. The CPS case was that his actions were motivated by hostility towards the victims based on their sexual orientation and his attempts to scare men off led on one occasion to violence.

"His victims were targeted because Wohanka did not want gay men using the common."

April 5, 2017