Police to investigate comic's antisemitic abuse

...as pub at the centre of storm insists: 'There's no racism here'

Police are investigating the racist threats made to Jewish comedian Katie Price during the Arsenal vs Spurs clash on Sunday.

On Monday, Chortle reported how Price had been subject to aggressive abuse in a North London pub after asking fellow Arsenal fans not to use the offensive antisemitic chant ‘yiddo’ against their local rivals.

Scotland Yard has now confirmed the incident was reported to them, adding: ‘Officers have made an appointment to speak to the woman and will be progressing this.’

Price, 26, also told how staff at The Cally pub ejected her after the terrifying incident – and not the group of racists who turned on her.

Now the bar manager has said he had been unaware of the offensive words used, insisting: ‘ There is no racism in my pub.’

The venue was full of Arsenal fans watching the derby on TV, and Price had joined in the cries of 'we hate Tottenham’ as the game reached its conclusion.

But when one man started a chant using the insulting term – an offensive reference to Spurs' large Jewish fanbase – Price lodged her objection, explaining how hateful the term was.

Then another Arsenal fan rounded on her. Price told Chortle: 'I saw the whites of his eyes and then he shouted at me with such anger: "You dirty fucking yid!" Five men were coming at me, they had to be restrained away from me.’

It was then that The Cally's manager came over and asked Price and her ground to leave. As they did so, chants began of 'Off you go’ and ‘Yiddo go home’.

The comedian said she was ‘really, really shocked’ by that turn of events, explaining: ‘I just kept saying to him [the manager], "did you hear what they said to me? They called me a 'dirty fucking yid!",’ she recalls. ‘And he stumbled over his words and then just said "get out, get out!"

'To them [the racists], it looked like they'd won. And I felt so vulnerable. That there was no security, I thought was mad. But throwing out the people that were attacked? We were running a gauntlet through these absolute dickheads.’

When Chortle first broke the short, The Cally did not respond to a request for comment, but now its manager Edmund Toska has told The Times: ‘I saw the lady wearing an Arsenal shirt but did not know she had been abused

‘I did not know the word before but it is now banned from my pub. There is no racism in my pub. Those men who abused her are banned, we are a family pub.

‘Both groups were wearing Arsenal shirts and we did not know what the argument was about. We were trying to prevent a fight and, to be honest, we were pleased when the lady and her friends left because it stopped the trouble.

‘If I had known there had been racism I would have called the police. I am very sorry for what happened to her. We are happy to help the police, we have CCTV.’

Arsenal has told its fans to stop using the term, after a review of 23,000 fans found that 94 per cent acknowledged it can be considered a racist term.

Price’s ordeal comes two months after fellow Jewish comic Joe Jacobs posted footage of hecklers shouting ‘Yid army’ and making a Nazi salute as he was on stage at Up The Creek comedy club in South London: