UK: children's cartoon creator detained and branded racist for innocent scarf joke at airport security

The creator of the popular children’s character Fireman Sam has told how he was accused of racism after making a light-hearted remark at Gatwick airport. 

Dave Jones said he experienced an ‘Orwellian nightmare’ after commenting on the ease with which a woman with her face covered by a hijab, another form of the burqa, had walked through security controls. 

As he placed his scarf and other items into a tray to pass through an X-ray scanner, he quipped to an official: ‘If I was wearing this scarf over my face, I wonder what would happen.’ 

To his astonishment, he was met on the other side of the barrier by officials who detained him for an hour in an attempt to force him to apologise and the police were called. 

Mr Jones, 67, who was supposed to be meeting his daughters, said: ‘Something like George Orwell’s 1984 now seems to have arrived  in Gatwick airport.

‘I feel my rights as an individual have been violated. 

‘What I underwent amounts to intimidation, unlawful arrest and detention. I was humiliated and denigrated in full public view.

Mr Jones, a former member of the Household Cavalry and a retired fireman, said he had said nothing racist. But she took his passport and boarding pass and escorted him to another area where she questioned him. 

He said: ‘It was impossible to get her to listen to reason. We were then joined by a second female security guard who stated that she was Muslim and was deeply distressed by my comment.

‘I again stated that I had not made a racist remark but purely an observation that we were in a maximum security situation being searched thoroughly while a woman with her face covered walked through.

‘I made no reference to race or religion. I did not swear or raise my voice.’
After about 20 minutes, he asked the security guard whether he was going to be charged. She said no, but he could not leave until he apologised. 

He called for a policeman but, he said, it was clear the officer was ‘keeping to the politically correct code’.

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