A drunk woman who racially abused fellow tube travellers in a tirade that was posted online has been jailed for 21 weeks.
Jacqueline Woodhouse, 42, from Romford in Essex, launched an
expletive-laden rant at passengers on the Central line, telling those
seated near her: “I used to live in England and now I live in the United
Nations.”
A seven-minute video of the verbal assault was uploaded to YouTube and viewed more than 200,000 times.
District judge Michael Snow told Westminster magistrates court,
central London: “Anyone viewing it would feel a deep sense of shame that
our citizens could be subject to such behaviour and may, as a
consequence, believe that it secretly represents the views of other
white people.”
The judge told Woodhouse she would serve half her sentence behind
bars and banned her for five years from using the London Underground and
Docklands Light Railway network while drunk.
He recounted how Woodhouse drunkenly boarded the Tube at about 11pm
on 23 January. “The train was packed with people from a variety of
ethnic backgrounds,” he said. “The people included children.
“She became loud, foul-mouthed and aggressive. She targeted her behaviour at those who weren’t white.
“She directed it at those who were close to her, on occasions
directly into their faces. She threatened violence against more than one
person and it took place over a prolonged period.”
He said her “grossly offensive” language reflected her hostility to her fellow passengers.
While one traveller was left so shocked by her racist aggression that
he no longer felt he could interact with white people on the tube,
another, of Pakistani descent, felt victimised because of his “cultural
background” and was left wishing he could afford a car to avoid having
to take the Underground, he said.
Rejecting suggestions by Woodhouse’s legal team that she felt “deeply
ashamed” of her actions, the judge added: “I find that assertion very
difficult to believe.
“She initially pleaded not guilty. She changed her plea to guilty one
day before her trial. By this time, she had victimised the witnesses
twice over by causing them the inevitable worry of having to give
evidence and coming into contact with her again.”
Woodhouse was fined following a similar offence on the DLR in
December 2008. In the video of her latest foul-mouthed outburst, filmed
by businessman Galbant Juttla, Woodhouse shouts in a thick Essex accent:
“All fucking foreign fucking shitheads.”
The former secretary, who has since lost her job and now claims
benefits, turns to other passengers and asks: “Where do you come from?
Where do you come from? Where do you come from?
“All over the world, fucking jokers. Fucking country’s a fucking joke.
“I would like to know if any of you are illegal? I am sure like 30% of you are. Fucking jokers taking the fucking piss.”
Claire Campbell, prosecuting, said Woodhouse began her stream of
abuse after a retirement party when she was feeling a little “worse for
wear”. She had drunk an unknown quantity of champagne.
Woodhouse sat with her head bowed as CCTV footage of the prolonged
rant between St Paul’s and Mile End stations was played to the court.
In it she could be seen turning to the Pakistani man sitting next to her, who is singing his national anthem.
“You can fucking sing my fucking dear friend. I hope they fucking
catch up with you and shove you off. I will punch you in the face, you
are a fucking joke. Pakistani fucking losers. Ninety percent of you are
fucking illegal. I wouldn’t mind if you loved our country.”
She then turns on Juttla, 47, who assures her he would rather be listening to his
music than to her ramblings.
“Oh look, he’s filming, hello. Hello government,” she says, leaning into the camera. “Why don’t you tell me where you’re from?”
Juttla, from Ilford, Essex, replies: “I am British.” She then gets
her phone out of her handbag and looks as if she is filming him too.
“Watch what you are saying,” Juttla warns her.
She replies: “I used to live in England and now I live in the United Nations.”
Juttla decided to film Woodhouse – who previously worked for the
Department for Transport – when she started berating a black woman named
Judy Russell, the court was told.
She stumbled over Russell as she boarded the carriage and proceeded
to hurl insults, shouting: “You Africans take our council flats.”
Juttla, a single father of two, was travelling back from the funeral
of a close family friend that day. He watched Woodhouse sit down between
two Asian men before she lambasted those around her.
The video shows Juttla telling Woodhouse to keep her mouth shut and that she has had too much to drink.
She becomes extremely agitated and starts screaming, saying: “It’s
not your country anyway so what’s your problem? It’s been overtaken by
people like you.”
In further remarks, she tells passengers: “I’ll have you arrested
because you don’t live here”, and “I hope you are not claiming
benefits.”
She handed herself in to police after the footage began to circulate and appeared on the Sun website.
Woodhouse told officers she could not remember the rant but recognised herself in the video.
She pleaded guilty to one count of causing racially aggravated
“harassment, alarm or distress” by using “threatening, abusive or
insulting words or behaviour”.
Rebecca Lee, defending, said Woodhouse had been promoted to become PA
for a partner at the accountancy firm where she worked the day before
she launched her stream of abuse.
“She is dismayed and, I should say, not only for those who were
present but also because she has friends and family members who are
black and Asian and she knows they would have been shocked hearing those
words coming from her,” the lawyer said.
“She maintains she would never have dreamt of saying those words had
she not been significantly affected by alcohol, having gone to a leaving
party after work on that particular evening.”
Lee suggested a fear of terrorist activity and her views on
immigration could have fuelled Woodhouse’s actions. But she recognised
this was “no justification” for her behaviour.
“She is ashamed of what happened and wishes she could turn the clock
back but of course she can’t,” Lee added. “She is on jobseeker’s
allowance, having lost her employment.”
Woodhouse, who was said to be in a “loving” relationship with her
partner of 12 years, was supported in court by one of her sisters and a
niece.
The publicity and attention to her case was said to have taken a
“considerable toll” on her mental health and she was prescribed
medication for depression.
She appeared to show no emotion as she was led from the dock.
Outside court, Juttla recalled his horror at the rant. “I was pretty
shocked, and I don’t want to go through anything like this again,” he
said. “I was born in this country, and I don’t accept any of this
behaviour.
“For a third party to say ‘You are on benefits, you are unemployed, you are not British’ … I don’t accept it.
“I think the judge probably made the right decision – she got the
order for five years, and she’s got 21 weeks. Hopefully she’ll learn
from that.”
In December 2008, Woodhouse verbally abused a male passenger while on
a train to Stratford. She asked whether he had paid taxes, adding: “I
have had enough of it. Why don’t they go back to where they come from?”
Andre
3000 is snapped on set of his upcoming biopic in full costume as Jimi
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Archives/Getty Images; JD1/WENN.com)
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Atwell is seen on set on May 28, 2012 for 'All is By My Side,' the Jimi
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Zuckerberg is still pretty wealthy with a worth of more than $14 billion. Tony Avelar/Bloomberg
