Soccer

Four Chelsea fans convicted over racist abuse of black man

Four had stopped French man from boarding Paris metro train in February 2015

Richard Barklie (above), an ex-Royal Ulster Constabulary and Police Service of Northern Ireland officer, from Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland was given a 12-month suspended sentence on charges of committing racist violence and making chants of a racist nature. File photograph: PA
Richard Barklie (above), an ex-Royal Ulster Constabulary and Police Service of Northern Ireland officer, from Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland was given a 12-month suspended sentence on charges of committing racist violence and making chants of a racist nature. File photograph: PA
Tue Jan 03 2017 - 19:14

Four Chelsea fans were convicted, given suspended jail sentences and fined by a Paris court on Tuesday for committing racist violence when they stopped a black French man from boarding a metro underground train in the French capital in February 2015.

Video footage had shown the four, who were there to watch the London club play Paris St Germain in a Champions League match, chanting: "We're racist and that's the way we like it" as they blocked Souleymane Sylla from getting on the train.

Suspended sentences

Souleymane Sylla speaks to the press at the Palais de Justice in Paris during the trial of four British men accused of racist violence towards him in February 2015. The four were convicted. Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images
Souleymane Sylla speaks to the press at the Palais de Justice in Paris during the trial of four British men accused of racist violence towards him in February 2015. The four were convicted. Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images

Richard Barklie and William Simpson, who were not in court, were given 12-month suspended sentences on charges of committing racist violence and making chants of a racist nature.

Barklie is an ex-Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officer, from Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland.

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Josh Parsons and James Fairbairn, both of whom appeared in court on Tuesday, were handed suspended sentences of eight months and six months respectively on similar charges.

The four were ordered to pay €10,000 (£8,500) in total to Mr Sylla.

Reuters