Neighbour says lesbians taunted them with racial slurs

The Star
Published On Wed Mar 24 2010

Neighbour says lesbians taunted them with racial slurs

Two Oshawa women who were allegedly assaulted by a black man constantly harassed and used racial slurs against their black neighbours, a court has heard.

Diane Campbell, who lives two doors from Anji Dimitriou and Jane Currie, testified she has called police eight or nine times over the couple's behaviour.

"They're very aggressive people. They call my family 'n---s' and they're constantly attacking us," Campbell said on Tuesday. She testified the couple called her son a "black tar baby monkey."

Campbell was called as a defence witness for Mark Scott, 45, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault causing bodily harm against Dimitriou and Currie. The charges arise from an altercation outside Gordon B. Attersley Public School on Nov. 3, 2008 in which Scott, who is black, and the same-sex couple got into a yelling match.

The women have denied using racial epithets during the confrontation, which was witnessed by school children and parents. However, they have accused Scott of using derogatory terms about their sexual orientation. Days before the incident at the school, Campbell overheard a conversation outside her home involving Dimitriou, 32, and Currie, 38, and three other people, court was told.

Dimitriou referred to "f---ing n---s" and someone said "we're going to get those n---s" the next day, Campbell testified.

"I was scared, thinking they're going to do something to myself or my husband."

The group didn't refer to her family by name and nothing happened, Campbell said, but a few days later her daughter told her about an incident at the school involving Dimitriou and Currie. She didn't elaborate.

The harassment continued after the couple learned Campbell was coming to court to testify, she told defence lawyer Mark Jacula.

Earlier on Tuesday, Angela Hustins, who witnessed the dispute in the school's parking lot, said she heard Currie hurl an "ugly racial slur" at Scott after he punched her and Dimitriou in the face.

"Jane screamed out very loudly, 'you goddamn f---ing n-----. This is why people can't stand your kind'," Hustins told Jacula. "For her to say something like that, it was disgusting. The whole thing made my stomach ill."

Hustins said Scott started the fight by hitting Dimitriou as many as three times, knocking her to the ground. But Dimitriou hit and kicked back, Hustins testified.

"I remember thinking 'this is a full-out brawl'," she said, adding that the slur upset her because she later had to explain it to her young daughter.

Hustins described the scene as "chaotic" with swearing, yelling and "finger-pointing just inches from each other's face."

The trial continues.

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My thoughts.

Clearly this isn't an ordinary situation. I've been on the receiving end of racial slurs from women on more than one occasion, and let me tell you, I wished I was a woman at the time (or had a woman friend there). I've also known men who weren't so reserved about hitting women. Clearly this guy was one such guy. The question is this, what do you make of a situation where a guy gets provoked and responds violently.

Obviously if he hit them, he should pay the price. But the interesting thing about this case is that it was billed as a hate crime. Meaning, he hit them because they were lesbians (in fact he did seem to call them names back). Now it turns out they were the hateful ones. Taking things to a very different place of crime.

Lesbian and racist... and unexpected turn, certainly.

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