UK police identify man in Ryanair racist rant – but charges unlikely ‘due to airline’s failure to act’
- Ryanair did not remove the passenger before take-off in Barcelona, making it harder for the case to be pursued in Spain
- The man was filmed abusing a 77-year-old woman, calling her an ‘ugly black bastard’
British police say they have identified a man filmed racially abusing an elderly black woman on a Ryanair flight.
The woman, Delsie Gayle, 77, said she had been left stunned and depressed after a man shouted at her to move seats as they boarded a plane last Friday.
In footage shared on social media, Gayle’s daughter tries to stand up to the man and tells him her mother is disabled. The man says he does not care “whether she’s f***ing disabled or not. If I tell her to get out, she gets out”.
Essex police said they had identified both parties in the incident and passed the information to the Spanish authorities, who were leading an investigation.
In the footage, the man calls Gayle an “ugly black bastard” and shouts: “Don’t speak to me in a foreign language, you stupid ugly cow.” Gayle, who is of Jamaican origin, was speaking English.