Man cleared of racist English slur

Published on Monday 9 June 2008 22:08

A LANDLORD was accused yesterday of calling his tenant an "English b******" as he evicted a family from his farm cottage in the Highlands.

Andrew Forman, 66, had turned up to ensure the tenants were leaving his property, but ended up being charged with an alleged racial rant at Heath Snowball.

The Yorkshire-born coach driver said the landlord had called him an "English b******" in front of two of his children on the day the family was leaving the cottage at Delnies, near Nairn.

Mr Forman appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday facing a charge of racially aggravated breach of the peace in August last year.

The Nairn-based solicitor denied the charge. He admitted he had "muttered" the swear word, but had called Mr Snowball ignorant, rather than English.

During the trial, Mr Snowball said he was reversing a van into the driveway when Mr Forman appeared. He told the court that relations between them were so bad he did not want to speak and waved the landlord to leave, but Mr Forman stayed.

Mr Snowball said he climbed out of the van to tell him to go. He added:

"He kept asking: 'When are you leaving?' and I just told him to leave. I walked towards the house and he kept following me.

"When I went for the door handle, Andrew went for the door handle. He tried to enter the house. I got there first. He said: 'This is my house'.

"He was quite aggressive. I slammed the door shut. I heard Andrew say 'English b*****'. I quite clearly heard it."

Defending, Barry Smith accused Mr Snowball of lying or being mistaken, but he replied: "I am a Christian. I do not tell lies. I swear on the Bible."

Mr Smith said his client had muttered "ignorant b******" as he turned to leave the property, but Mr Snowball said that this was untrue and that the remark made had been "racist".

The court heard Mr Forman had leased the property, 100 yards from his own house, Sandwood Farm, in May 2005.

Relations between landlord and tenant were initially good. The solicitor had let the Snowball children play in his orchard and help themselves to apples and raspberries. But things turned sour when Mr Forman complained about the children playing football,

leading to a dispute over a broken window.

Mr Smith told the court his client ordered an inspection last May and found parts of the house in disrepair.

Mr Snowball admitted his dog had chewed one door and damaged paintwork, but said many parts of the house were in disrepair when the family moved in.

Mr Smith said Mr Forman did not shout, was leaving the property at the time of swearing and, therefore, did not commit a breach of the peace. He said that if his client was found not guilty of committing a breach of the peace, the racial aggravation element was not relevant.

Sheriff Derek Pyle found no case to answer and acquitted Mr Forman.