Suspect in Chelsea fan’s Paris racism shame from Islington
Chelsea supporter, Dean Callis, 32, of Liverpool Road, Islington, north London, suspected of involvement in an incident in Paris in which a black man was prevented from boarding a train. Pic; Chris Radburn/PA - Credit: PA
Dean Callis, along with four others, fighting football banning order
An Islington man is suspected of being involved with Chelsea fan's racist incident on the Paris Metro Pic: Martin Keene/PA - Credit: PA Archive/Press Association Images
One of the five Chelsea supporters suspected of involvement in an incident in Paris in which a black man was prevented from boarding a train is from Islington.
Dean Callis, 32, of Liverpool Road, will now fight applications to impose football banning orders and denies the allegations, a court heard.
Controversy erupted when fans were filmed singing racist chants and refusing to let the man on the Paris Metro train ahead of the west London club’s match against Paris St Germain last month.
Several Chelsea supporters chanted: “We’re racist, we’re racist and that’s the way we like it.”
The Metropolitan Police are applying for football banning orders to be imposed on five men who they believe were involved in the incident.
Callis attended Waltham Forest Magistrates’ Court in north-east London for a preliminary hearing along with Richard Barklie, 50, of Victoria Street, Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland; Jordan Munday, 20, of Ellenborough Road, Sidcup; Josh Parsons, 20, of Woodhouse Place, Dorking and William Simpson, 26, of Hengrove Crescent, Ashford, Surrey.
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Prosecutor Ian Rees Phillips told the court - which was packed with legal representatives and reporters from the UK and France - that the five men opposed the implementation of the banning orders.
District Judge Mary Connolly said the orders would involve severe restrictions to civil liberties. They are designed as a preventative measure to stop potential troublemakers from travelling to football matches at home and abroad.
The French commuter kept off the train, Souleymane S, has said the incident “destroyed” him and left him unable to work or travel on public transport.
He said his children had been left “traumatised” by reports of what happened and that he had become depressed.
