Police investigating incident at Baker Street station after a woman claimed someone tried to forcefully remove her hijab

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Update added on 27 July 2020: On 1 October 2019, Mr Uczciwek was found not guilty of racially aggravated common assault at the end of a two-day trial at Blackfriars Crown Court in London.

Police are investigating a suspected hate crime after a man allegedly tried to pull off a Muslim woman’s hijab and spat at her friend in London.

The woman, who posted about the incident on Twitter, was waiting for the tube at Baker Street early on Saturday, when she alleges she was set upon.

Tweeting under the name Aniso Abdulkadir, she posted a picture of the man who allegedly attacked her, writing: “This man at Baker Street station forcefully attempted to pull my hijab off and when I instinctively grabbed ahold of my scarf he hit me.”

She continued: “He proceeded to verbally abuse my friends and I, pinning one of them against the wall and spitting in her face.”

Abdulkadir added that a woman who was present was also threatening and verbally abusive.

She urged others to share the image in order to identify the suspect, earning more than 24,000 retweets by Sunday afternoon.

A British Transport Police spokesman said the incident was being investigated as a hate crime, adding: “Behaviour like this is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

“This incident has been reported to us and we’re investigating.”

However, a man claiming to be the man in the image tweeted on Sunday to protest his innocence, claiming he had been defending his partner from what he called a “racist attack”.



He said the allegation against him was “completely false”.

Pawel Uczciwek wrote: “I would like to confirm I never hit or attacked anyone I simply defused the situation by separating them.



“The police is fully cooperating with me and will be able to obtain CCTV footage showing the three women attempting to attack my partner because we are in an interracial relationship.”

Inquiries are under way and anyone with information is asked to text 61016 or call 0800 40 50 40.