Bank Exec Accused Of Race Assault After Black Bouncer Ejected Him From Private Speed-Dating Event

Jonathan Le Roith

 An executive with RBS, who drunkenly gate-crashed a bar's speed-dating event, attacked and racially-abused the black bouncer who ejected him and threatened to shoot him in the head, a court heard today.

Privately-educated Jonathan Le Roith, 31, the Director of Capital Resolutions at Royal Bank of Scotland, twice tried to knee 35 year-old Dean Platt in the groin while shouting: "You black bastard," the jury were told.

Bath University-graduate Le Roith, who attended £30,000 a year Reed's School, Cobham, Surrey brawled outside the House of Wolf, Upper Street, Islington, which is near his £650,000 apartment in Richmond Grove.

Blackfriars Crown Court heard Le Roith refused to budge despite being repeatedly asked to leave the private event, hosted by internet dating site 'Plenty of Fish', and grabbed the manager's shirt and doorframe to prevent his exit.

"He quite rudely shrugged me off twice, like I was nobody," explained six-foot three, sixteen stone Mr. Platt. "He told me he wasn't leaving and walked back to the bar.

"I took his left arm and was walking him out and it got into a bit of a frenzy."

Bar manager Daniel Jennings tried to assist and told the court: "He was shouting and screaming and holding onto the doorframe.

"He grabbed hold of my throat and was thrashing around. He ripped my shirt."

Outside Le Roith refused to leave. "He tried to knee me in the groin twice, but missed and kicked my inner thigh," said Mr. Platt, who is also a part-time actor.

Dean Platt

"I looked at him and thought: 'Are you serious? Why would you want a fight with me?'

"He told me he was coming in and took a swing at me and then swung a second time so I pinned his arms and he was shouting: 'You're hurting me.'

"Eventually we ended up on the floor. He was resisting and told me I should let him go because of what would happen to me.

"He called me a 'shit' and called me a 'black bastard' and told me I was worthless and that my people were nothing.

"He told me he could shoot me in my head and said he had a gun at his house and would shoot me.

"He told me I was lucky to be allowed in the country and I told him I was born in London and raised in London.

"He kept saying what would happen to me if I was in South Africa and that upset me."

Le Roith was restrained on the ground for up to thirty minutes until police arrived. "His whole line was: 'I'm a white man, I'm superior.'

House of Wolf

"He was looking at me dead in the eye and you could see what he was like and he was saying: 'You won't get justice. I'll get let off'."

Mr. Platt denied referring to the defendant as "white boy" during the incident and ejecting him from the bar without warning.

Prosecutor Mr. Orlando Gibbons told the jury: "He wouldn't leave when asked to do so and wanted to stay because he had a drink."

There were additional offensive comments during the assault on Mr. Platt, said the prosecutor. "He said: 'You disgust me. I know why you are doing this, it's because we are suppressing you.

"'You are only in this country because we welcomed you. You're doing this because you're black and I'm white'." 

Le Roith, who is claiming self-defence, has pleaded not guilty to the racially-aggravated assault of Mr. Platt, an alternative count of assault and racially-aggravated harassment onwards the bouncer.

He also denies assaulting Mr. Jennings on November 27, last year.

Trial continues………….