A school bus-driver who called a 12-year-old schoolboy a "black bastard" was yesterday convicted under the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act.
Dundalk District Court heard that Celsus Callan (34), with an address at Carnagat Park, Newry, Co Down, had been driving the bus on November 6th last when he directed the remarks towards a boy attending the De La Salle secondary school in Dundalk.
Garda Pat Grant told the court that when the boy was boarding the bus at Mill Road in Dundalk his schoolbag had become caught in the doors. The driver was not on the bus and the boy had opened and then closed the doors to free his bag.
The garda said that the driver returned to the bus and said to the boy: "What are you doing, you f***ing nigger? Sit down, you black bastard." Callan then asked the boy where he was from and told him to "go back to Africa, where he came from". When the bus reached Castletown Road, Dundalk, the driver referred to a number of black people in a nearby car, saying: "Them blacks in the car should be taken out and drowned."
Garda Grant said that, as a result of the incident, the boy had been afraid to travel on the bus and his mother had great difficulty in getting him back to school.
Mr Roger McGinley, a solicitor representing Callan, said that although his client had pleaded guilty to the two charges, his statement to the garda only referred to one particular comment, and there were considerable differences between what he said and what the boy said.
Callan told the garda that he had been outside the bus talking to relatives when his cousin told him there was a fellow opening and closing the doors. He said that he got on to the bus and asked the boy what he was doing, to which the boy replied: "It was not me." Callan had admitted asking the boy where he lived. When the boy told him he was from Africa Callan had asked him if his mother would pay €700 to "fix the broken door".
Mr McGinley said Callan now recognised that this was an entirely inappropriate thing to say and he regretted the remark. He had been concerned at the time about the accidental opening and closing of the doors, as there was a degree of danger involved. This concern and annoyance had led to the outburst. He was an electrician by trade who had been temporarily working as a part-time bus-driver.
The solicitor said that Callan had also spent eight years living in New York and he believed he was fully conscious of the sensitivities of race relations and the need to exercise due discretion in such matters.
Judge Flann Brennan said that Callan had behaved reprehensibly and there was no excuse for the language used. On the charge of using words which could stir up hatred, brought under Section 2 of the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989, he imposed a fine of €150. He imposed a similar penalty on the second charge, brought under Section 6 of the Probation of Offenders Act, for use of threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour with intent to provoke a breach of the peace.
Callan was also bound to the peace for two years.
After the case the boy's mother said: "I feel good that he was found guilty and that justice was done, but I would have preferred him to get a jail sentence. This man abused a 12-year-old child and the least he should get is one month in jail."
The incident had led to a deterioration in her son's academic performance and he had resisted returning to school. "He is only just getting his confidence back and will be delighted with the result in the court."
Until last week the mother and her son had understood that the case was being contested and that they would have to give evidence and possibly face cross-examination. As a result of the trauma endured by the boy, his mother asked that his name not be published.