Claims that a student was subjected to racial abuse on a train are being investigated.
BAME train passengers racially abused. The group of white men were filmed by student Rosedona Williams as they abused her and called other BAME passengers “dogs” and “mutts”. The microbiology student posted her footage on Facebook which shows a man racially abusing her and other passengers nearby.
She said that the incident was “truly traumatising”. She claims the abuse lasted for the whole of her journey from Borth to Aberystwyth which takes 20 minutes. She managed to get over one minute of video footage. British Transport Police (BTP) are now investigating the incident.
Williams said it was not the first time she had experienced abuse however this time was “blatant” and extremely worrying. Along with the footage she posted on Facebook she said “This experience was truly traumatising and has left an emotional scar, but I know I will eventually be OK.
The older guy in the blue shirt… initially stopped when he got on the train, where I sat, and said ‘hello sister’ and raised his hand in the air. He then started chanting loudly ‘there’s a dog on the train’ and his friends joined in. Then he saw that there was another black guy at the front of the train and said to his friend ‘oh actually there are two dogs on the train’ and changed his chant to ‘there are two dogs on the train’.
He then saw that there were three Asian people on the train and told his friend ‘aye there are three mutts as well’ and started chanting ‘there are three mutts and two dogs on the train’.” She also claims that the first man made Nazi salutes in her direction. British Transport Police have told Williams that they have identified the instigator of the trouble.
She went on to say “I truly hope that they will all be held fully accountable by the law in due time for their vile racist actions. No human being, no matter the colour of their skin, should ever be subjected to such vile racial verbal abuse, it is humiliating.”
A spokesman for the BTP said “BTP is investigating a report of a racist incident that occurred on Sunday, 30 May, on board a train between Machynlleth and Aberystwyth. Our inquiries are continuing. We utterly condemn this abhorrent behaviour and are treating this report very seriously”.