Ryanair racism row: Police speak to man filmed abusing black woman on flight

Two forces probe alleged 'racially aggravated incident' after footage goes viral

British police officers have have spoken to man filmed racially abusing an elderly woman on a Ryanair flight from Barcelona.

Essex Police has confirmed it was investigating an alleged “racially aggravated incident” in relation to footage which showed David Mesher calling fellow passenger Delsie Gayle an “ugly black b******”.

The force said it would hand information to Spanish authorities as the video was filmed at Barcelona airport before the plane left for London Stansted on 19 October.

Two West Midlands Police officers arrived at the sheltered retirement housing block in Birmingham where Mr Mesher, 70, lives. They made no arrests and left less than an hour later on Wednesday afternoon.

The force said it was “assisting Essex Police, who have the primary investigation”.

Essex Police said it was contacted over the weekend about “a racially aggravated incident happening on a Ryanair plane while on the tarmac at Barcelona Airport”.

In a statement, it added: “This incident took place on Friday October 19, a video of which has been widely circulated on social media and covered by media both here and abroad. Since the report was made to us our officers have identified both parties involved and are progressing a number of inquiries.

“There are agreed national protocols to follow when incidents are reported to have happened in another country. As such, we will be conducting an investigation to submit to the Spanish authorities in due course.”

It is understood that Spanish police are not initially leading the investigation because incidents on planes are first probed by authorities at the flight’s destination.

But Barcelona city council has said the matter would be reported to the Spanish public prosecutor’s office as a suspected hate crime.

“Barcelona is a welcoming and anti-racist city,” tweeted the Catalan capital’s deputy mayor, Jaume Asens, who denounced the incident as “intolerable”.

Footage of the incident was been watched more than seven million times since it was posted on social media by David Lawrence, another passenger on the flight.

The video shows Mr Mesher shouting at Ms Gayle, 77, and demanding she moves seats.

After Ms Gayle’s daughter tells him her mother is disabled, Mr Mesher responds: “I don’t care whether she’s f***ing disabled or not – if I tell her to get out she gets out.”

He later tells her: “Don’t talk to me in a f***ing foreign language you stupid ugly cow.”

Jamaican-born Ms Gayle, a Windrush-generation migrant to the UK, has said she feels “very low” about what happened.

She told ITV News: “I feel really depressed about it. I go to bed and say, ‘What have I done?’ I haven’t done anything to attack him, it’s because of the colour of my skin I was abused like that.”

Ryanair is facing growing calls to apologise after its cabin crew chose not to eject Mr Mesher from the flight.

The former railway worker, who lives in a leafy area of Birmingham’s Yardley Wood suburb, declined when approached by reporters outside his home.

A spokeswoman for housing provider Optivo, which runs the accommodation, added: “We do not condone abusive behaviour in any form. As this matter is now being handled by the police we are unable to make any further comment at this stage.”