The former policeman has apologised for his involvement in the Paris Metro incident…
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Chelsea fan Richard Barklie has apologised for his involvement in the alleged racist incident on Paris Metro train after he was outed as one of the men who blocked a black man from boarding the train.
Quite remarkably, the 50-year-old is a director of a worldwide human rights organisation and is a former Irish police officer.
Video footage showed Chelsea supporters pushing a man known as Souleymane S out of a metro train whilst chanting “we’re racist and that’s the way we like it”.
Through a statement from his solicitor Kevin Winters, Barklie acknowledged his involvement in the incident but denied he was a racist.
“He did not participate in racist chanting and singing and condemns any behaviour supporting that,” the statement is quoted as saying by AFP.
Barklie offered an apology to Mr. Souleymane and asked media not to “undermine his right to a “fair trial”.
“He wants to put on record his sincerest apologies for the trauma and stress suffered by Mr Souleymane,” the statement continued.
“He wants to put on record his sincerest apologies for the trauma and stress suffered by Mr Souleymane. He readily acknowledges that any judgment on the integrity of his apology will be kept in abeyance pending the outworkings of the investigation.
“Given the extremely sensitive nature of the issues, we urge upon all media outlets to exercise as much restraint as possible when commenting on the case.
“We accept on behalf of our client that public interest demands nothing but total indignation and condemnation from all media reporting but such reporting ought not to persist at the expense of undermining Mr Barklie’s right to a fair trial.”
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