Update: Seven years jail for 'hate crime' machete attack on gay man

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by Elizabeth Roberts
The Royal Gazette

A thug who chopped a gay man's face with a machete in a homophobic attack has been jailed for seven years.

Sending Rashad Cooper to prison yesterday, Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves warned that such crimes of hate will not be tolerated in Bermuda.

Cooper, 26 – older brother of the murdered Cooper twins – had a history of violent crime and homophobia before he launched the attack on Shawn Nusum, 25, in the early hours of November 15 last year.

On the night in question, the pair got into a dispute in Club Ovation, Water Street, St. George's, when Cooper taunted Mr. Nusum once again.

He later lay in wait for Mr. Nusum, and as he left the premises he hit him about the face with a machete.

"In some jurisdictions, such as the United States of America, such offences have come to be known as hate crimes and they attract penalties much above that attracted by the normal offence.

"No such legislation has yet been introduced in this jurisdiction, nor has the defendant been so charged, but the court should take into account the basis for the attack on the part of the defendant. And the court does indeed find that basis to be an aggravating factor."

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Bermuda gay man attacked with machete, court hears

The Bermuda Sun

A homophobic attack on a St. David's man left him with fractured facial bones and a two-inch gash over his eye, a Supreme Court jury heard yesterday.

Medical evidence read in at the trial of Rashad David George Cooper - brother of the murdered Cooper twins Jahmal and Jahmil - disclosed that the victim Shawn Nusum's cheek and jaw were broken in the machete assault, while his nose was fractured and he has partially lost the ability to raise the injured eyebrow.

Mr. Cooper, 25, of Fenton's Drive, Pembroke denies charges of unlawfully wounding Mr. Nusum on November 15 with intent to do him grievous bodily harm, and having a machete with him as a bladed article in a public place.

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