He’s a racist! Jeremy Vine ‘gun’ claim was because I am black
Girl in road rage trial accuses BBC man of racial stereotyping
JEREMY Vine was yesterday accused of racial stereotyping in a row with a black woman driver alleged to have made a gun gesture and kicked his bicycle.
The Radio 2 presenter said he was left scared after being confronted by Shanique Syrena Pearson as he cycled home from work.
Pearson, 22, is accused of threatening to knock him out in a foul-mouthed rant as the pair clashed in the street last August.
But on the first day of her trial she accused Mr Vine through her lawyer of racially stereotyping her after the broadcaster told police she had made a threatening gun gesture with two fingers.
Pearson was caught on Mr Vine’s helmet camera getting out of her Vauxhall Corsa and screaming at him after he stopped in front of her.
He had been cycling down the middle of a narrow street in Kensington, West London, to avoid car doors. Mr Vine, 51, uploaded footage of the incident on August 26 to the internet where it has been viewed millions of times. The pre- senter, who came straight from his Radio 2 show to give evidence, told Hammersmith Magistrates’ Court: ‘I could tell she was upset and my main aim was to try and calm her down and explain why I was cycling in front of her. I realise I don’t want to make any judgment of her but I believed I was dealing with a violent person.
‘When someone walked up towards you like that purposefully, they’re furious and they are getting into your space.
‘The next thing that is going to happen is you are going to get hit. I was quite scared about what was going to happen.’ The court was shown the footage in which Pearson’s car was seen behind Mr Vine’s bike and she was tooting her horn, before he stopped in the road.
Pearson got out and was heard shouting: ‘Why the f*** would you stop in front of a car? You don’t respect your f****** life. Move your bike, move your bike.’
Mr Vine, who presents Eggheads and Crimewatch on TV, was heard trying to explain he was trying to keep a car door width away, and she responded by kicking and pushing his bicycle. As Pearson went to get into her car, she was heard saying: ‘If I hit you I could have been done for murder.’
When Mr Vine later tried to take a picture of her car she leapt out again, shouting: ‘If you take a picture of my car again I’m going to knock you out because that’s my personal belongings. Don’t f****** take a picture.’ He could be heard off camera warning ‘don’t hit me, that would be an assault’ before she got back into her car.
Mr Vine alleges that as he came up to her car Pearson made a gun sign with her hand aimed at him.
Giving evidence, the father of two said: ‘In the footage she threatens to knock me out if I took her picture several times.
‘Again I don’t want to make any judgments about her or who she is but they are the words of a violent person and somebody who had hit people before without any question. That is why it seemed threatening. I have been hit before as a student and I didn’t like it much.’ James O’Keeffe, defending Pearson, told Mr Vine: ‘I suggest that you have racially stereotyped her as a black person and that gesture is associated with black people.’
The presenter replied: ‘I have just told the truth. She formed her hand into the shape of a gun and cocked and motioned it to fire at me.’
Pearson denies making a gun sign with her hand, but admitted she did swear at him with her middle finger. Giving evidence she said she had to perform an emergency stop after Mr Vine stopped.
She claimed she tried to move the bike out of her path and only got out of her vehicle a second time as she was ‘alarmed’ he had followed her.
She said: ‘I know what I said was wrong and I’m open to apologise but we both done wrong. You can’t be riding like that on the road.’
Pearson, of Vauxhall, South London, denies driving without reasonable consideration for other road users and using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour. She has admitted driving an unlicensed vehicle. The trial was adjourned until January 26.
‘I’m going to knock you out’