Boozed-up man who demanded to be served ‘by a white girl’ on BA flight loses job

A boozed-up IT consultant who racially abused a female British Airways cabin crew member and demanding that he be served by a “white girl” has lost his job and is considering leaving the country, it emerged today.

Peter Nelson, 46, became irate after being woken up by Sima Patel-Pryke while flying business class on a 11-and-a-half hour BA flight from Heathrow to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

The “red-faced” married dad-of-three said: “You Asians think you are better than us, I don’t want to be served by you lot, I’ve paid your wages for the last 20 years.”

Nelson, who lives in a £1.15 million five-bed detached house in Ascot, Berks, and earned £1,500 a week, reduced the stewardess to tears after he “shouted very loudly” at her in the jet’s galley.

Nelson, who has been an external consultant for GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceutical company in the UK for nearly 20 years, “targeted” Ms Patel-Pryke before he was threatened with arrest.

The pilot authorised cabin crew got a restraining kit ready to use on him and threaten him with arrest.

Today he shook his head and sniffed in the dock as a jury delivered a unanimous guilty verdict to one count of racially aggravated abuse on the flight on June 2 last year.

Fining him £2,000, with £500 compensation to his victim and £3,500 costs to the prosecution, Judge Edward Connell said: “You plainly displayed a contemptuous attitude towards the staff from the outset, when Ms Pryke, simply doing her job, came to wake you in order to take your food order.

“You took immediate offence at her having the audacity in your view to wake you up.

“It seems that that was the beginnings of what turned out to be on your part an opportunity for you to get very upset without any justification at all.

“That manifested itself in the most unpleasant of ways.

“It was thoroughly unpleasant period of conduct by you; such was your conduct that members of staff were called to deal with you and they had cause to contact the pilot.

“It’s quite plain albeit this wasn’t the most serious case the court hears, that it had an impact on Ms Pryke who we heard in evidence was upset and ended up in tears because of your behaviour.

“It was completely unacceptable and I’m entirely satisfied that it was contributed by that you had drunk a significant amount of alcohol during the course of that flight.

“I accept this conviction will have profound ramifications for you and your employability so I’m just persuaded that this can be dealt with with a financial penalty.”

Lauren Sales, in mitigation, said his wife suffered from stress due to the allegation and was treated by paramedics in an ambulance at the court after seeing national press reports of the case.

She added: “He has lost his job. He was the breadwinner of the family. It is life changing for Mr Nelson, the two of them have taken the decision to take their children out of their school because it’s an international school.

“They feel they cannot go to the gates of the school and stand in the playground.

“They talked earlier between the two of them of considering moving back to New Zealand because of the ramifications.”

Michael Tanney, prosecuting, said: “It’s no mere mischief to say he bullied and ranted and shouted.

“At one point, after a sustained targeting of her, she begins to back away in fright and became tearful.”

Citing another cabin crew member, Sam Buchanan’s evidence, he said: “Nelson subsequently demanded services in the future only from the white member of the crew.

“He accused the defendant of shouting very loudly to add to the menace that he was exuding. All deliberate say the crown. That was when the white girl reference was allegedly made.”

Culled from The Mirror