Gardaí investigate alleged racist attack on taxi driver

A man has handed himself in to a Garda station after footage emerged of a black taxi driver being racially abused and assaulted.

The dashcam footage, which has been posted on Twitter, shows a clearly inebriated man call the taxi driver a "n*****" on several occasions. The incident happened at 10pm on Easter Sunday night on the Malahide Road in Donnycarney, north Dublin.

The man asks the taxi driver: “What’s your favourite position?” The taxi driver responds: “I don’t understand what you mean by my favourite position.” The passenger then uses a racial slur, says he is a police officer and tries to hit him.

The taxi driver tries to restrain him and the man racially abuses the driver again before he exits the car.

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The footage has been shared on Twitter by taxi driver Damien Hetherington who says drivers have been constantly assaulted in recent weeks.

He stressed many assaults were not necessarily racially motivated citing the example of a 70-year-old Dublin taxi driver who was beaten up and pulled out of his car in Tallaght recently.

In a statement, gardaí said the man who handed himself into a north Dublin Garda station, the station was not named, was not a member of the force.

Gardaí say they are aware of the video of the incident and have asked people not to share it further on social media.

The statement continued: “A suspect in the case has presented themselves at a north Dublin Garda station and gardaí are following a definite line of enquiry.

"Anyone who witnessed the incident is asked to contact Clontarf Garda station 01 6664800 or the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111."

In 2015 the Immigrant Council of Ireland issued a report confirming that there was a perception of widespread racism directed at non-Irish taxi drivers.

The council recorded 54 incidents of racial abuse between January 2013 and November 2015. In one incident, a taxi driver of African origin was stabbed in the neck and cheek by a customer who refused to pay for the fare. The driver believed the attack was racially motivated.

The council interviewed 23 non-Irish taxi drivers for the report. One said he was regularly called a “n*****” at taxi ranks and some passengers will skip non-Irish taxi drivers until they find a driver that is Irish.

The report noted that many racial attacks happened while the taxi was in motion putting the driver and passengers at risk.