A Nigerian national based in Dublin, Ireland, Stanley Abayeneme, has appeared in court for allegedly attacking his neighbour, Vilmantas Zutkis, over claims of racist abuse.
A report by an Irish news media, Sunday World, revealed that the High Court in Dublin refused Abayeneme’s request for an interim injunction to restrain Zutkis from allegedly directing racist abuse at him.
Abayeneme told the court that Zutkis repeatedly subjected him to racial harassment.
“He will come to my unit and racially abuse me and my worker, John Onuigbo Obinna, calling us monkeys, placing bananas in front of our shop, and threatening us with deportation back to Nigeria in a container,” he stated in his affidavit.
Abayeneme who operates a car cleaning business in Tallaght, further alleged that Zutkis’s behaviour was “aggressive and obstructive”, including threats to his staff, interference with his customers, and even a burglary in which he claimed to have lost €200,000 worth of cash and stock.
The presiding Judge Justice Emily Egan, after reviewing video footage of an April incident, stated that the Nigerian businessman had not been entirely truthful in his account.
According to Punch, the judge noted he had not come to court with clean hands before refusing his application for restraining orders.
The video, which was presented to the court, showed Abayeneme allegedly attacking Zutkis with a stick, breaking it on his leg, throwing a ladder at him, and spray-painting his neighbour’s windows.
Lawyers for Zutkis had argued in a letter dated August 5 that this violent conduct undermined Abayeneme’s claims of being only a victim.
The Sunday World report added that Abayeneme was now facing prosecution for allegedly breaking two windows in Zutkis’s business premises.
The case is expected to return to court later this week.
