Steven Wilkinson suffered a racist altercation
(Picture: Supplied)A British Asian man has said he faced racist abuse and had been threatened with a brick on his first visit back to his childhood park in south London.
Steven Wilkinson, 58, told police officers that he was confronted by two thugs who shouted racist slurs at him and made threats when he took pictures of them on his phone in Priory Gardens, Orpington.
The father said they told told him to “go back to where he came from” on Wednesday, despite him being born two miles away in Farnborough.
“I was just really upset,” he told The Standard.
Police are treating the incident as a hate crime but so far they have made no arrests.
The retailer, who now lives in Cornwall, had just returned to the capital after the death of his father during the pandemic to close his bank accounts and help his family sort out Probate.
After finishing at Natwest, he entered Priory Gardens on a “nostalgia trip”.
However, Mr Wilkinson suffered racist verbal abuse after he approached by a man who asked for a word with him.
He told The Standard: “Alarm bells started ringing straight away. I said ‘Look mate I’m really sorry I just want a time out and I’m off now’. He started calling me a ‘P***’ and telling me to go back to where I came from.
“I said, ‘look I’m not standing for that I haven’t done anything to you’. He wasn’t a particularly big bloke. I looked to my right and a park warden was there with a dog who heard the scuffle. He said ‘Come this way and I will have a word with them’.”
When the warden intervened, Mr Wilkinson said the man’s friend - who hadn’t spoken - then picked up a brick.
The warden then said: “Hey, put that down!”
Mr Wilkinson praised the quick actions of a park warden who challenged the “shameless” men and escorted them out of the park at 5pm on Wednesday.
The warden marched the two men out and contacted police who arrived within 15 minutes to take a statement from Mr Wilkinson.
Mr Wilkinson said: “He didn’t deny it and just said I shouldn’t have walked off. It was shameless really. I just wanted to eat my chips and smile at a few people on a sunny day and I was thinking how much nicer Orpington was than when I’m growing up.
“But instead the exact opposite happened and I ended up feeling [racism] has gotten even worse than the 1980s. I was shocked they would be so open about it in ear-shot of BAME people who made up half of the park. I thought ‘what planet are you on?’”
Despite the confrontation, he said: “The major difference now is that police actually came quickly and took it seriously, there was a black officer which was also reassuring.
“Before the two came over I saw an Asian family having a picnic and a group of mixed-race schoolchildren, you could buy an avocado on the high street and I thought to myself ‘it has really improved around here’.”
The online retailer, who spent many years working with addicts in social housing, left the capital for good for the Tamar Valley, Cornwall after the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in nearby Plumstead.
He said: “Moving away from here was important for me to live like a human being instead of constantly looking over your shoulder. It took me back in a horrible way. I’m an optimist and like to believe things have changed for the better but that threw me.”
A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: “Police were called to reports of racially aggravated harassment in Priory Gardens, Church Hill, Orpington.
“The victim, a man in his 50s, told officers he was sat on a bench in the park when two unknown men approached him and asked if they could have a word.
“The victim declined and the suspects then verbally racially abused him.
“The suspects left after being asked to do so by a park ranger. It was reported that one of the suspects was holding a brick. No injuries were reported. The incident is being treated as a hate crime.
“No arrests have been made. Enquiries continue.”
