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This article is more than 5 years old

A former police officer from Northern Ireland involved in an alleged racist incident on the Paris Métro involving Chelsea fans has described in court how he was reacting to someone aggressively trying to get into a crowded carriage.

Richard Barklie, 50, who could face a football banning order with three other Chelsea fans, is seen in video footage twice pushing Souleymane Sylla – until now known only as Souleymane S – stopping him from getting into a carriage while the train is waiting at Richelieu-Drouot station. The incident occurred on 17 February before the match in which Chelsea drew 1-1 with Paris Saint-Germain.

Sitting in the witness box because of a sore knee and back, Barklie watched the video being played in court, and gave his version of the incident.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Video shows Chelsea fans preventing Sylla from boarding Paris metro train

“Mr Sylla was the only person using aggression,” Barklie told the court. “He was aggressively forcing himself into this space where there was no room.”

Barklie said that, in accordance with his public order training, he put his hand up to protect himself, going on to describe how Sylla started shouting with “spray coming out of his mouth”.

The Chelsea fan said: “I did push him, I put my hand out to stop him getting into this space.” He added that the train was packed.

Asked by his lawyer, Nick Scott, whether he had an issue with the “colour of his [Sylla’s] skin”, Barklie replied: “None whatsoever.”

Barklie also denied joining in singing or chanting of “We’re racist, we’re racist and that’s the way we like it”, which can be heard on the video. On Wednesday, Adam Clemens, seeking the banning order against Barklie and three others, described Barklie as the “prime mover” in the Paris Métro incident.

Barklie denied that he had been abusive towards Sylla. “He was aggressive in his action trying to get on the carriage, which has not been alluded to,” Barklie told the court. Asked about the racist chanting, Barklie said he had no idea who had started it and what carriage it was coming from. “I wasn’t doing it,” adding that he did not condone such chanting.

Video footage showed that the racist chanting started virtually immediately after Sylla was shoved out of the train.

It was revealed in court that Sylla told French police he had been violently pushed off the train as a Chelsea fan pointed to his skin colour.

Barklie, an ex-Royal Ulster Constabulary and Police Service of Northern Ireland officer, is currently a director with a human rights organisation – the World Human Rights Forum – and has also worked supporting victims of the Troubles.

Along with Barklie, Jordan Munday, 20, from Sidcup, south-east London, William Simpson, 26, from Ashford, Surrey, and Joshua Parsons, 20, from Dorking, Surrey, face face a three- to five-year ban from football matches.

The banning orders are aimed at stopping potential troublemakers from travelling to football matches at home and abroad.

At a preliminary hearing in March, the four men and one other said they would contest the ban. Dean Callis, 32, from Islington, north London, accepted the measure last week.

Munday preceded Barklie in the witness box. He said he was between five and 10ft inside the carriage and moved towards the door to see what was going on.

When shown footage of his mouth moving as he purportedly sung along, he said: “I was breathing, I have to breathe.”

He denied singing along with the racist chanting.

As for an earlier incident, when video shows Munday confronting a man who held a lit flare as Chelsea fans were walking along, he said: “The man was staring at me, he looked hostile, he was waving a flare in my face, I pushed him.”

Munday was later stopped by officers from the Met’s central football unit, and confirmed his name and address by producing his driving licence before allowing his profile to be filmed for the record. Simpson chose not to give evidence, but in a statement read out by his lawyer said he had pushed Sylla “as he pushed into me. I pushed back in response.” He added that he did not take part in the singing.

The court heard statements in support of Parsons, which said he was not a racist and did not support racists.

Sylla, a French sales manager, said his life had been shattered by the incident. “It was a shock that I can’t get over,” he said. “You’re on your way home from work and you’re pushed out of the Métro just because you’re black and the people who are doing it to you say: ‘Yes, we’re racist and we like it like that, we’re fine with that.’”

In his summing up, Clemens said if such behaviour went unchallenged, football fans who travel may act with impunity.

Lawyers for the four men, however, said the police were seeking the banning orders mainly in reaction to intense media attention and had to be seen to do something.

One lawyer pointed out that Sylla only complained to French police only when encouraged by journalists. They also argued that the banning orders were disproportionate.

District judge Gareth Branston is expected to make his decision next Wednesday.

• This article was amended on Tuesday 28 July 2015 to correct the spelling of district judge Gareth Branston’s surname.