- Did you witness the incident? Please email: mark.duell@mailonline.co.uk
This is the moment an Avanti West Coast rail passenger was led away by police after allegedly telling a man sat opposite her to ‘go back to Morocco or Tunisia‘.
The travellers appear to have got into a row about their feet touching each other under a table on the 11.13am train from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly.
A three-minute clip showed them arguing about the comment, with the man telling her she was being ‘disrespectful’ and ‘racist’ and the woman asking him to stop shouting.
The woman said she would be happy for him to show the video to police, but he later filmed her being walked along the platform at Stoke-on-Trent station by an officer.
The man filming the video told MailOnline he is an NHS dentist called Merouane Ait-Hocin who was travelling to Manchester for work when the incident happened.
MailOnline also understands the victim did not want to support a prosecution when speaking to officers after the incident on Monday, and no arrests have been made.
He started videoing the exchange – which has since been viewed 2.2million times on the @therealdrmero TikTok account – as she said: ‘Go back to Morocco or Tunisia.’
The man asked her: ‘Why would you say that? It’s so disrespectful, I was born here. Were you born here?’ She refused to answer, but then asked him the same question.
When he said ‘yes, I was born here’, she replied: ‘Doesn’t look like it to me.’ But he replied: ‘Have some respect, I’ve paid my taxes, don’t ever disrespect me like that.’
She said: ‘Serves you right.’ The man responded: ‘Serves me right? Do not ever disrespect me like that. Are you British?’ But she said: ‘I don’t want to speak with you.’
When the man again asked the woman ‘were you born here?’, she replied: ‘Don’t shout at me.’ But he said: ‘Don’t disrespect me, that was racist what you said.
”Go back to where you come from’. I was born here, OK? Don’t ever disrespect me like that. OK, have some respect? You probably weren’t even born here yourself.’
The woman then said: ‘Well you’re not speaking to me respectfully.’ But the man replied: ‘Because of what you just said – don’t ever talk to anyone like that. Who do you think you are?’ The woman then added: ‘You’re shouting at me. ‘
The man said: ‘Don’t ever talk to anyone like that.’ But the woman declined to apologise and instead said: ‘Alright, I’m going to speak to one of these staff.’
He encouraged her to do so, saying: ‘Speak to staff. I’ve got a recording saying ‘go back to your country’. Who do you think you are? You don’t talk to anyone… you don’t say to anyone ‘go back to your country’. Who are you?’
The woman said: ‘Look at the way you’re speaking to me now.’
But the man told her: ‘Yes, yes, I will speak to you like this because you are condescending, you are racist, and you are disrespectful. You don’t talk to anyone like that. Your parents or yourself were immigrants themselves. Have some respect.’
The woman said she was ‘not going to be spoken to in that way’. However, the man continued: ‘I will speak to you – if you disrespect me, I will return the energy.
‘You don’t disrespect me, you don’t condescend me and think I’ll speak to you with respect. You earn your respect, and you just lost it.
‘Don’t ever talk to me like this, don’t ever talk to anyone like this – don’t tell anyone ‘go back to your own country’. That is disrespectful.’ The woman then said: ‘Well you should because you’re so rude, you shouldn’t be here.’
But the man insisted: ‘This is my country, I’m not going anywhere. Don’t ever tell anyone ‘go back to your own country’. Are you OK?’
The woman added: ‘I’m sorry, but I’m not going to be shouted at.’ And the man said: ‘I will shout at you, because you were just racist, you were disrespectful.’
He then accused her of ‘gaslighting’, adding: ‘You said ‘go back to your own country’. I’ve got it on recording.’
It was at this point that the voice of a second woman could be heard, saying: ‘Is she alright there?’ The man told her: ‘She told me ‘go back to your country’ and she was sticking up the middle finger. She’s an immigrant herself. Who do you think you are?’
And the second woman was heard saying: ‘We heard her, we heard her, it’s disgusting.’ The man then repeated this, saying: ‘It’s disgusting, you’re a disgusting woman, that’s what you are.’
But the first woman told him: ‘You were the one who was rude to me.’
Then, the man said: ‘No, you were rude to me. You were staring at me throughout the journey giving me dirty looks, my feet weren’t even close to you.
‘And then you made a request in a very condescending manner. And I told you, you need to speak to people respectfully, don’t speak to me the way you did.’
The woman continued: ‘I’m sorry, but I’ve got no regrets.’ And when the man said he had ‘got it on recording’, the woman said: ‘Good, good, show it to the police – go on. ‘
The man insisted he would ‘show it to the staff here’, and the woman told him: ‘Yeah, yeah, show it to the staff, show it to the police.’
But he said to her: ‘Don’t ever disrespect anyone. You know what, shut up.’ She then told him: ‘Don’t kick me.’ But he replied: ‘Shut up. I’m not kicking you, I’m putting my leg just like what you did.’
She however continued: ‘Yes, you are kicking me.’ However, the man said: ‘I’m not kicking you, no, because that’s exactly what you did and you stuck the middle finger up and I’ve got it on video.’
A second video posted on TikTok then showed the woman walking along the platform at Stoke-on-Trent station with her suitcase alongside a police officer.
A member of platform staff signalled for the train to leave, and the words ‘See it, Say it, Sorted’ were heard – the British Transport Police (BTP) campaign which asks people to be report unusual behaviour or items or public transport.
A British Transport Police spokesman told MailOnline: ‘Officers received a text report to 61016 at about 11.45am on February 3 concerning racial abuse on a train from Euston to Manchester.
‘Officers met the train at Stoke railway station and identified people in connection. Enquiries into the incident are ongoing.
‘Anyone who can assist is asked to contact British Transport Police by either calling 0800 40 50 40 or texting 61016. Alternatively, information can be given anonymously to Crimestoppers at 0800 555 111. Please quote reference number 248 of 3 February 2025.’
Avanti West Coast has not commented.
