Dawn Ward at an earlier court appearance
(Picture: PA)Reality TV star Dawn Ward drunkenly slapped a Jewish man across the face after racially abusing him on the packed concourse at Euston station, a court heard.
The 48-year-old Real Housewives of Cheshire star is accused of using foul-mouthed abuse and anti-Semitic slurs towards property developer Jake Jacobs and his brother Samuel as they tried to catch a train home.
Ward, the wife of former Premier League footballer Ashley Ward, allegedly called Mr Jacobs a “Jewish c**t”, branded him fat, and is accused of saying to the brothers: “Why are you lot always complaining?”
The mother-of-four is also accused of having a packet of cocaine in her handbag when she was arrested, but has placed the blame for the drugs on her housekeeper, jurors heard.
Prosecutor Gregory Wedge told Inner London crown court, sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice, the incident happened at Euston on October 29, 2019, when trains had been cancelled and delayed due to problems on the line to Manchester.
“You Jewish c**t, why are you people always complaining? You fat p**ck”, he said. “These were the words spoken by Dawn Ward when she racially harassed the Jacobs brothers at Euston station.
“Ms Ward had been drinking that night, the Crown say heavily. There were various problems with the trains, Euston station was packed. Trains were cancelled, there was trouble for people traveling to and from Manchester.
“Jake and Samuel Jacobs were querying with station staff what was going on with the cancelled trains. Ms Ward, in her drunken state, felt the need to come up to the Jacobs brothers and say ‘why do you lot always complain?’.”
Mr Wedge said the Jacobs brothers tried to ignore Ward, but she “persisted” and the incident “became a bit violent”.
“Ms Ward became aggressive towards them”, said the prosecutor. “She actually slapped Jake Jacobs across the face as well. The Jacobs brothers were quite upset by the incident and they called the police.”
Mr Wedge said Ward was arrested by British Transport Police who discovered a packet of cocaine inside an empty cigarette carton in her handbag.
“She may say that her housekeeper put it in there without her knowledge, putting an empty cigarette packet containing a packet of cocaine in there”, said Mr Wedge. “The Crown says that is laughable.”
Jurors heard Ward denies being abusive or slapping Mr Jacobs, telling police they had a “friendly” conversation and it was “a playful tap on the cheek, not a slap”.
“She denied using racially aggravated words”, added the prosecutor in his opening address to the juror.
Giving evidence, Mr Jacobs said Ward smelled of alcohol and he believed she was a drunk person who had been on a night out.
“It was really confusing why she was so angry”, he said. “She was being quite scary and abusive.
“I felt I had a long day at work, was travelling home, and was being started on for no reason. It made me really upset.”
Mr Jacobs said he suffered flashbacks and stopped using the train after the incident, telling the court he was “really sad” as a result of the alleged anti-Semitic abuse.
“Eighty to ninety years on from the Holocaust, for a long period of time it really played on my mind. I couldn’t believe in the current climate…that could happen. It really affected me for a long period of time.”
Ward, an interior designer who lives in a £15 million Cheshire mansion, denies two counts of racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm, or distress and a charge of possession of a class A drug.
She is sat at the back of court accompanied by her husband. The trial continues.
