She’s been left severely shaken by what happened.
The woman who was the victim of racial abuse on a Ryanair flight at the weekend has spoken out following the foul abuse aimed at her.
Delsie Gayle told ITV News on Monday that she was left shaken by the incident and unable to eat or sleep, saying that she cries every time she remembers it.
She said: “I was shocked, nobody ever said those words to me.
“I travel a lot, I go to Canada… and no-one has ever said those words to me.”
Speaking about how the abuse has affected her, she told ITV: “I feel very low. He paid a fare a to go on holiday, I’ve paid mine so why does he abuse me for that due to the colour of my skin?”
“He did it with me and he gets away, he’ll do it to somebody else,” she added.
David Lawrence, the man who filmed the incident on the flight, has come under criticism online for his decision to film what happened rather than intervene, but he said acted like he did so people would know what happened.
Speaking about the video, Lawrence said “visual is important” and “now the world knows what happened”.
Lawrence told BBC Breakfast: “I had to make a difficult decision at that time because if I had stepped in I don’t think you would have seen the footage that I captured.”
He also said: “In fact, one of the passengers whilst I was filming basically said to me ‘don’t you think you’re being a bit childish by filming this’.”
The video, posted on social media on Saturday, appeared to a show a white British man hurling racial abuse at a Gayle while sat next to her on a Ryanair flight.
Throughout the video, the man refers to both Gayle’s skin colour and accent in derogatory terms.
Ryanair staff did not remove the man from the flight but instead moved the woman to a different seat on the flight.
In a brief statement on Sunday, Ryanair said: “We are aware of this video and have reported this matter to Essex Police.”
Former cabin crew supervisor Ally Murphy, who appeared on BBC Breakfast alongside Lawrence, praised him and said: “It is great that David did film that.
“This happens every day in the community and people need to step forward and say this isn’t right.”
“But as a cabin crew member, it’s not great when people pile in and try to take things into their own hands.”
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