Man made to feel “white guilt” over racist abuse of takeaway staff sentenced

Categories: Latest News
Wednesday July 27 2016
A man who racially abused two takeaway workers at a restaurant in Dundee said he was made to feel “white guilt” over the offence, The Courier and BBC News report.
Joel Justice, 25, was drunk when he walked into the Curry Junction shop late on 29 April to order food.
Justice asked two men working in the shop, Rifa Nezir and Rehan Khan, “Are you from Afghanistan” before telling them to “go back to your own country.”
He also told the pair, “You treat your women like slaves.”
Justice did not notice that staff had called the police following his abuse and when police arrived, they found Justice standing at the counter in the shop eating his food.
When asked by police officers about the reported abuse, Justice told them “I just told them p**** to go back to their own country.”
Justice continued to espouse racist comments while in police custody and later told social workers that he felt he was made to feel “white guilt” over the comments.
Justice pleaded guilty to acting in a racially aggravated manner intended to cause alarm and distress at Dundee Sheriff Court earlier this month.
Appearing before the court for sentencing, Sheriff Alastair Brown told him: “I recognise that you were drunk and you have an alcohol problem. But from the point of view of the person who suffers the abuse, that makes no difference.
“You were abusive in racist terms and if by ‘white guilt’ you mean a spurious feeling of responsibility for things that you had nothing to do with, you are wrong.
“You used foul and abusive language.”
Justice was handed a community sentence and ordered to carry out 135 hours of unpaid work and placed on supervision for two years.