Passenger with “entrenched racist views” walks free from court after shouting antisemitic abuse and giving Nazi salutes on flight from Warsaw to Liverpool

A man with “entrenched racist views” has walked free from court after shouting antisemitic abuse and giving Nazi salutes on a flight from Warsaw to Liverpool.

Louis Mann’s rant was reportedly filmed by a fellow passenger, a family member of Holocaust victims, who said that he was “shaken”, “shocked” and “disgusted” by the abusive language. Mr Mann is a 28-year-old medical student studying in Poland and was allegedly under the influence of alcohol during the incident.

The prosecution advised that “The defendant was a passenger on a Wizz Air flight from Poland, Warsaw, to Liverpool on 19th October 2019 The flight arrived at Liverpool John Lennon Airport at 17:37,” adding: “The flight was full and passengers reported during the flight Mr Mann had had to be repeatedly asked to sit down, to fasten his seatbelt and to refrain from making rude and offensive gestures.”

The offence for which Mr Mann was charged apparently took place once the flight had landed in the UK. He allegedly “got out of his seat before permitted to do so” and responded to requests from the flight crew to sit down with a “tirade of racial and religious abuse by words and gestures”. According to the prosecution, “He was standing in the aisle of the flight making a Nazi salute and was shouting ‘Anglo-Saxon race, we are superior’.” He also apparently said, “‘Know your place, don’t answer back, you’re a Slavic race traitor n***** lover’,” spoke of “inferior people”, and shouted abuse to “Jewish n***** lovers”.

Mr Mann’s racist rantings apparently continued as he was being arrested and even once he reached the custody suite, where he told one policeman: “You’re alright, you’re Aryan.”

According to the defence, Mr Mann was impacted by recent mental health problems and that he had been “groomed” by far-right groups in Poland.

Wlodzimier Tych wrote in a victim impact statement: “Prior to this I have always felt very welcome in this country. I have lived in this country for 31 years; I have never experienced this sort of behaviour. I am of Jewish origin, this made me feel very shaken and upset, I also felt angry, disgusted and upset as he continued his behaviour regardless of other people’s feelings.”

Mr Mann, of Morecambe, admitted being drunk on the plane but denied a charge of racially aggravated harassment. The court described Mr Mann as having “entrenched racist views” and upheld the drunkenness charge, increasing the sentence to reflect the racial element.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crimes than any other faith group.