A Tube worker has been caught posting vile racist and anti Muslim messages online. Train engineer Martin Aitken used Facebook to insulted Muslim, Asians and disabled people in a series of offensive posts.
Aitken, who joined London Underground this year, was caught by the Standard following a tip-off and when confronted said: "Oh for f**k's sake – it's going to jeopardise my job."
Aitken began posting the hateful messages online as far back as 2010. One, from March 30 that year, read: "Did you know that in the time it takes to clap your hands, a Pakistani will die somewhere in the world. All together now – 'If your happy and you know it'."
On February 7 this year he wrote: "I just saw a muslim with three lions on his shirt. I f*****g love longleat Safari Park," followed a day later by: "Muslims of Britain. If you obeyed the law, accepted our values, integrated into society, abandoned terrorism, spoke English in public, made more of an effort with personal hygiene, charged the same price in your shops as the rest of the retailers, didn't burn poppies … then we wouldn't hate you … as much."
He also posted a distasteful joke about a disabled child, saying: "Can you spare just £2? Ranji is a 9yr old boy living in Namibia. He has only 1 leg, 1 arm and 1 eye. Each day he has to ride 7 miles along a narrow road on a rusty bike with bent wheels, no brakes and only 1 pedal. If you send me just £2, I will send you the video – it's f*****g hilarious."
In another vile post he penned a "poem" which read: "I know a p**i whose name is Jim. I love 2 lob tomatoes at him. tomatoes are soft & don't hurt the skin, but these fuckers do cos theyre stil (sic) in the tin..."
A co-worker said: "The content posted on Mr Aitken's Facebook timeline appears to demonstrate a deep seated hatred for anyone different to himself. He is using social networking sites to promote racism and his personal hatred of Muslims."
Aitken, who commutes to London weekly from Exeter, apologised for the "stupid" comments and insisted he was not a bigot because "my best mate is Jamaican".
He said he had now shut down his Facebook profile and added: "It is stupid. I did not see the offence it could have caused. I overlooked the fact I am offending people and I apologise."
He insisted he did not hate Muslims or was a racist, and said: "I was being stupid. I work at London Underground and there are a lot of people from all different walks of life and I get on well with all of them. "My best mate is Jamaican."
A spokesman for Transport For London said it was launching an investigation into the posts.
He said: "TfL expects its staff to adhere to the highest possible standards and will not tolerate bigoted and abusive behaviour from staff. The content of these posts has been brought to our attention and, in line with TfL's employment policies and London Underground's guidelines for the use of social media, we will be investigating this issue fully."
Evening Standard, 19 February 2013
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