Fashion designer given suspended fine of €6,000 by Paris court
The British designer John Galliano has been given a suspended fine of €6,000 (£5,200) by a Paris court for racist and antisemitic rants at people in a Paris bar.
The former couturier was found guilty of "public insults" based on origin, religion, race or ethnicity after two incidents in February 2011 and last year.
In the February incident, a French couple having a beer outside La Perle bar in Paris's Marais district said he repeatedly insulted them with lines including "fucking ugly Jewish bitch" and "fucking Asian bastard". Geraldine Bloch, 35, said he first asked her to shut up, then criticised her clothes, hair, thighs, eyebrows and makeup. He made 30 anti-Jewish insults in the space of 45 minutes, she said. Another woman said he made similar insults to her in the same bar in October.
At Galliano's trial in June, the state prosecutor had requested judges fine Galliano saying that although he was not a "theoretician" of race hatred or antisemitism, this was "everyday antisemitism and racism" which she said was "pitiful and dreadful".
It is doubtful whether Galliano – who told his trial he couldn't remember the incident because of a "triple addiction" to alcohol, sleeping tablets and Valium – will ever be able to redeem himself at the top of the fashion world.
He has undergone treatment for his addiction. He appeared frail and weak at his trial in June but was not present on Thursday for the verdict.
Read more at The Guardian
