Police are investigating students in the Holylands telling Roma residents to ‘go back home’

Absolutely no time for this


Police are investigating reports of racist abuse toward the Roma residents of the Holylands after students allegedly told them to “go back home”. One resident allegedly witnessed students shouting the ‘n-word’ at Roma young people. Nearly 200 anti-social behaviour incidents were recorded in the Holylands in recent days.

Brid Ruddy, chair of the College Park Avenue Residents’ Association  reported these incidents to the police after witnessing distressing scenes.

She said: “There were Roma youths standing on the corner and there were students going past. I saw racist abuse being hurled at these Roma youths. It was a group of about eight students going past and about eight Roma young men shouting at one another. The students were shouting all this torrent of abuse, ‘go back home’.

“There was an exchange between the two groups but certainly the students were shouting. How these Roma guys kept their cool I don’t know.”

Ms Ruddy said she had seen the students shouting the ‘n-word’ earlier as they left an off-licence. Ms Ruddy said her Roma neighbour wasn’t surprised by the incident. “They said that’s very common all year round,” she said, adding that few report issues as they don’t speak fluent English.