The Ontario Parole Board has denied Trevor Middleton early parole for his role in a night of racist attacks on Asian Canadian anglers near Keswick that left one man with permanent brain damage.

Middleton, a professional motocross racer from Georgina, was found guilty in 2009 of four counts of aggravated assault and two counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm for his role in a night of “nipper-tipping” or “nip-tipping,” local slang for attacks on Asian fishermen.

Middleton, 26, was sentenced to two years, less a day, after Newmarket court heard he repeatedly rammed his Ford F-150 truck into a Honda Civic driven by Shayne Berwick, who had been fishing in Lake Simcoe with a group of friends that included two Asian Canadians in the early hours of September 16, 2007when a gang of locals attacked.

Court heard that Berwick and his friends attempted to flee the area of the Mossington Park Bridge in a Honda Civic, while Middleton gave chase at high speeds in his Ford F-150 truck.

Berwick, a former apprentice electrician, suffered permanent brain damage when his car spun off the road during the high speed chase and smashed into a tree.

Berwick’s father Colin Berwick attended the hearing on Tuesday at the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay and said he was pleased with the decision, but troubled that Middleton continues to deny that he played any role in the racist attacks.

“He minimized everything,” Colin Berwick said in a telephone interview. “Everything was trivialized.”

Middleton has one more opportunity to apply for early parole before he is freed in October.

“He can’t admit the fact that he did what he did,” Colin Berwick said. “That irks me. You can’t rehabilitate somebody until they admit what they’ve done.”