A Dublin Bus driver accused of referring to a Gambian passenger as a "nig nog" became the first person to be convicted under the Prohibition on Incitement to Hatred Act yesterday.
Gerry O'Grady was also convicted of assault at the Dublin Metropolitan District Court. The court had heard that O'Grady told the passenger he should "go back to his own country".
O'Grady denied referring to Mr Matthew John as a "nig nog" and said he could not recollect telling him to go back to his own country. However, he admitted alleging that Mr John, a sales representative and model who has lived here for eight years, was on social welfare and in receipt of £50 "socialising money". .
O'Grady told the court Mr John was trying to get on his bus with food and he was enforcing the rules.
"I was carrying out part of my duty which the company I have to say was not prepared to back me on. They're hanging me out to dry like a turkey."
After the incident, O'Grady went to a Garda station to report that he had been racially abused. He told the court Mr John had called him a "f. . .ing racist pig".
When Garda David Byrne got on the bus and began investigating the matter he said O'Grady had told Mr John he should go back to his own country. "I took this to be a racial comment . . . he was so aggressive, he was unbelievable," Garda Byrne said.
O'Grady was convicted of assault after threatening another passenger with the cash dispenser.
He will be sentenced next Friday.