Fact Check

Did a Trump Supporter Kick a Pregnant Muslim Woman in the Stomach?

A man was charged for kicking a Muslim woman in the stomach and killing her unborn twins, but he was not identified by police as a "Trump supporter."

Published Feb. 8, 2017

 (Shutterstock)
Image Via Shutterstock
Claim:
A President Trump supporter kicked a Muslim woman in the stomach and killed her unborn twins.
What's True

A UK man was arrested and charged with "racially or religiously aggravated assault" for kicking a Muslim woman in the stomach and killing her unborn twins.

What's False

The suspect was a non-U.S. citizen whose political affiliations are not known, and photograph often circulated with this story was taken from an unrelated event.

On 8 February 2017, the web site Alternative Media Syndicate published an article reporting that a "Trump supporter" had kicked a pregnant Muslim woman in the stomach, killing her two unborn twins:

pregnant-muslimah-fake

Trump Supporter “Kicked Pregnant Muslim Woman In Stomach Killing Unborn Twins”

A MAN was charged today charged over a race attack on a pregnant woman who later lost her unborn twin babies.

David Gallacher, 37, is accused of assaulting the mum-to-be by kicking her in the stomach as she walked close to a mosque.

That article was based on a real incident which took place in  August 2016 in England. The Thames Police Department took to Facebook to state that David Gallacher had been charged with a number of offenses stemming from that incident (and another which took place a month later), including assault,
racially/religiously aggravated assault, and assaulting a police officer:

We have charged a man with a number of offences including assault, racially/religiously aggravated assault and assaulting a police officer in Bletchley.

David Gallacher, aged 37, of no fixed abode was charged with one count of assault causing ABH, one count of assault by beating, two counts of racially/religiously aggravated assault and three counts of assaulting a constable in the execution of his/her duty.

The charges relate to two incidents. The first was on Saturday 6 August 2016, when two victims, a 34-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man were assaulted and racially abused by a man near the Co-op on Water Eaton Road, Bletchley.

The second incident relates to an incident on 14 September 2016 in Larch Grove, Bletchley, when three police officers were assaulted as they arrested a man.

Shortly after the charges were announced, Metro published an article on the topic and noted that the female victim in the August 2016 assault was a Somali Muslim and had been pregnant with twins at the time of the attack:

A man has been charged with racially aggravated assault after a Muslim woman was kicked in the stomach while pregnant with twins causing her to lose the babies.

David Gallacher, 37, was charged with one count of actual bodily harm, two of racially or religiously aggravated assault, assaulting tree police officers and one count of common assault.

A Somali woman was kicked in the stomach while pregnant but did not know she was expecting twins until she was told she had lost them.

Similar reports were filed by BBC, the Independent and the International Business Times. None of these publications identified the accused as a "Trump supporter," and as this incident occurred in the United Kingdom, it's unlikely that Gallacher had any substantive ties to American politics.

Alternative Media Syndicate claimed that Gallacher expressed support for President Trump on his social media pages but did not provide any evidence (such as links to his profiles or screenshots of his timeline) documenting this assertion, nor the suggestion that Gallacher's putative political preferences had anything to do with the motivation behind his actions.

Furthermore, the image displayed above does not show the woman who was reportedly attacked by Gallacher. That photograph has been online since at least 2012, and Alternative Media Syndicate noted at the bottom of their article that it was taken "from similar incident in France, for illustrative purposes."

Sources

BBC News.   "Charge Over Attack on Pregnant Woman Who Lost Twins."     8 February 2017.

Kentish, Ben.   "Homeless Man Charged with Racially Aggravated Assault on Muslim Woman Who Lost Unborn Twins."     The Independent.   8 February 2017.

Hartley-Parkinson, Richard.   "Man Charged Over Racist Attack in Which Woman Lost Unborn twins."     Metro.   6 February 2017.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.