Paul Gascoigne: Ex-Spurs player to be charged with racial ab

[cronus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36451693

Paul Gascoigne: Ex-Spurs player to be charged with racial abuse

Ex-footballer Paul Gascoigne is set to be charged with racially aggravated abuse over a comment he allegedly made during a stage show.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it initially declined to charge him following the show at Wolverhampton Civic Hall on 30 November.
That decision was later overturned after a request to review evidence.

Mr Gascoigne, 49, has been issued with a summons to appear at Wolverhampton Magistrates' Court on 17 June.
Under the Victims Right to Review, a legal decision could be challenged by a victim or complainant, a CPS spokesperson said.
This was implemented to charge Mr Gascoigne for a "joke" he made during the Evening with Gazza show, the spokesperson added.
The Express & Star reported that the complaint centred on a remark the ex-England international is said to have made about a black security guard who was in a darkened part of the stage, about whom Mr Gascoigne allegedly said he could not tell "if he was smiling or not".

The former Newcastle, Tottenham Hotspur, Rangers, Middlesbrough and Everton midfielder, who retired from football in 2004, has openly spoken about his struggles with mental health and battles with alcoholism.

(continued, in other news Winston Churchill appears miserable and white on the new five pounds note - is he frowning or missing his cigar? I can't tell.)

[laklak]

Smile Sapphire, so I knows where you's at!

[JimC]

A little OTT, IMO...

[pErvinalia]

I don't know the specific joke told, but the racist joke would be as Lak told it, not Gascoyne saying he can't see a smiling black person.

[cronus]

I don't know the specific joke told, but the racist joke would be as Lak told it, not Gascoyne saying he can't see a smiling black person.

...and that would be a immortal emotional wound for the guy in the dark? I can see him blubbering and a emotional wreck in the face of such cruel unthinking jibes from the legendary alcoholic. Maybe the black man had some gayness also? But Gascoigne didn't cover that angle.

[laklak]

We're a planet of pussies these days. We deserve to be lizard food.

[Strontium Dog]

This is Britain in 2016. Ridiculous is our middle name.