By James Simons-
Southend Magistrates Courts have fined an elderly Essex man £600 for using the racist N word on a neighbour of of rogue landlord, Robert Crowe. Brake received 3 months probation with tag, curfew from 7am – 9pm, restraining order for 12 months and a fine of around £500 and compensation of £100 after being accused of threatening behaviour and using the N word on a black woman talking to a neighbour in Southend On Sea in Essex.
The 70 year old was accused of reeving his car violently in the direction of one of the feuding neighbours of mr.Crowe in protest at her disapproval of mr.Crowe’s presence in the highly sought after conservatory area . Mr Crow, an eccentric hoarder, is reviled in his local area because of the state of his property and the level of delinquent behaviour of his former residents that attracted police to his property on more than 50 occasions in 2018 alone. He lost his latest appeal to the Crown Court against a conviction imposed by Chelmsford Magistrates Court in 2014.
Brake claims what he said was ‘digger’, a term he picked up from Australia where he first lived, but two women standing near him said what they actually heard was the N word. The fine of £600 was quite low for a conviction of outright racism, and shows just how soft the law is in this respect.
Mr Crowe, who says he was standing right close to mr.Brake says he didn’t hear him say either the N word or digger, a statement that settled the Magistrates mind that mr. Crowe did not witnessed what mr.Brake said and therefore could not say either way whether he said it or not. The term digger is used for an Australian soldier, which in context will make no sense in any offensive sense. Magistrates rejected mr.Brake’s version of events and concluded he used the racist terminology, as charged,
One of the women who said she witnessed the racist language used was a former tenant of mr.Crowe who was helped to transport her belongings away from the property by Mr.Brake not long before the incidence.