The trial of a British National Party member accused of racial abuse was dropped after a district judge ruled he had no case to answer

Lorna Marsh:

Anthony Wickham, of Keswick Road, Cringleford, Norwich, was charged with two counts of verbal racist abuse in connection with two separate visits to a recycling centre.

Ken Sheraton, sitting as deputy district judge at Norwich magistrates heard evidence that during one of the visits last August to the centre at Swanton Road, Norwich, Mr Wickham, 72, asked a young black female recycling advisor why she was in the UK.

Giving evidence for the prosecution Elaine Nadio said that Mr Wickham said he looked at her with "disrespect".

"He asked 'what are you doing here?' and 'why did you come to this country?'. I told him that I came here for my studies and he said to me 'your country is probably bigger, I hope you return there when you finish'."

Ms Nadio said the incident upset her but that she just felt "pity" for Mr Wickham for making the comments.

On another occasion, Mr Wickham was complaining about the queue times for the centre to another recycling adviser, Alder Tye.

Prosecution witness Ms Tye told the court that he blamed the queues on too many "foreigners" in Britain then pointed at a black customer who was depositing a microwave and asked her what "people like him" were doing in the country.

She said: "Because I had been drawn into the discussion I felt quite shocked and upset, not just because of the comment he made to a customer but because of his opinions."

During a police interview conducted after the complaints, Mr Wickham said he did not make any racist or abusive comments.

In the interview, he stated: "I did talk to a black lady about studying here but I did not consider it to be offensive."

Judge Sheraton said he could see no evidence from the prosecution that there was racial abuse.

He told Mr Wickham: "On the basis of the evidence I have heard so far I am not satisfied there is a case to answer."

Nice to see that some judges still believe in freedom of speech.