An anti-immigration protester with the words ‘I can’ tattooed on his face made a video in which he recorded himself calling someone a ‘monkey’ and then told police he couldn’t be racist because ‘he has a black friend’, a court heard.

Daniel Roney was found guilty of racial harassment and threatening behaviour after he posted a video he made of himself during a ‘mob’ demonstration online. After he was arrested, the 25-year-old said he couldn’t be a bigot because he had a Jamaican grandfather, a black friend and a gay step-brother.

He has now been ordered to pay £760 after a judge found him guilty of ‘disgraceful’ behaviour.

Portsmouth Magistrates Court heard the incident took place at an anti-immigration protest in the city on August 7 outside the UK Border Agency building near Portsmouth International Port, nine days after the fatal stabbing of three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport. During the protest the M275 was blocked for a time.

In a video he filmed of himself which was played to the court, Roney was recorded saying: “F*** you, you ain’t got no rights you f****** monkey.” He also called someone a ‘f****** Ranjab’. Towards a pair of men, Roney could be heard saying: “You’re all too f****** gay. That’s meant to be a f****** bloke, look at that.”

He was reported to police by a woman who saw the video online because she was ‘offended and disgusted by what he was saying’. She said she had two gay relatives and his comments made her angry.

However, when arrested he claimed the offensive comments that could be heard on the video weren’t made by him.

Prosecutor Anisa Alrubaie told the court that Roney’s comments were transphobic, homophobic and racially aggravated. Ms Alrubaie said: “You can hear other voices, people speaking, shouting, but they aren’t quite as loud as [Roney] speaking, shouting.”

Reading what Roney said during a police interview, District Judge David Robinson said: “He said he couldn’t be racist because his Grandad was Jamaican and he has a black friend.” He also claimed ‘he couldn’t be homophobic because his step brother is gay’.

Defending, Robert Ashworth asked Roney, who is from Portsmouth, how he and his friends ended up at the riot. Roney told the court: “We just got caught up in it.”

He said that he didn’t know what the protest was about when Mr Ashworth asked him, and on why he made the video he said it was ‘just to show people what’s going on, what’s happening in the area’.

Trying to claim that it wasn’t him speaking in the video, Roney said: “Everybody was shouting, every person that was there was shouting. There was so much going on, so much shouting, screaming, swearing.”

After a trial, the judge found him guilty of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress and racially or religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress, charges he had denied.

Judge Robinson said: “[Someone was] constantly close to the camera that was recording those words. In the same voice, the person who shouted the one was the person who shouted the other. This was disgraceful behaviour. Along with a mob, you targeted individuals that you could abuse.”

Robinson said that he drew on the ‘strength from the support of those around [him]’ while ‘violating and degrading particular characteristics of those who were the object of [his] abuse’.

Roney was ordered to pay £760 in total. He received a £200 fine for each of the offences, a victim surcharge of £160 and £200 in costs.

Portsmouth News