This is the sickening moment a man launches a vile tirade of racist abuse at a black taxi driver, punching him several times and claiming to be a police officer.
The unprovoked Easter Sunday attack started when the two were riding in the taxi in Dublin, Ireland and the drunk passenger asked the driver, understood to be originally from Africa, what his favourite position was. He said he didn't understand the question and suddenly the passenger flew off the handle, calling him an 'n*****' in an attack that shocked Ireland and further afield. The driver, Samuel Johnson, who lives in the Blanchardstown area of Ireland's capital, has since spoken out saying he 'didn't know what to think' after the passenger grabbed hold of his steering wheel and falsely claimed to be a police officer. The attack only ended when the suspect, seemingly in an attempt to fight with the driver, jumped out of the taxi and requested that the driver follow him. Mr Johnson drove off without being paid. He told The Star: 'I didn't know what was going on. I tried to defend myself, hide my eyes, my face, my head. As a taxi driver, we are not allowed to retaliate so I tried to protect myself.' Mr Johnson went straight home after the attack but said he's now back at work. It has now been revealed that the suspect handed himself into Irish police after a friend sent him a video of his behaviour after CCTV dashcam footage went viral. Derek Devoy, who established Taxi Watch, a suicide prevention service run by his taxi drivers shared the shocking footage in a bid to identify the man, who is now believed to hail from Kerry, in south-west Ireland. The man contacted Mr Devoy who accompanied him to Malahide Garda station. The suspect made a statement. Mr Devoy told the Irish Mirror that if the man doesn't 'get made an example out of', it would be a 'kick in the teeth.' He added: 'I was sad for the fella [taxi driver] and I thought this other fella should be caught.' Not one person identified him, nobody acknowledged who he was. Then he [the passenger] contacted me and said he woke up last Saturday morning and someone had sent him the video, a friend of his.' He said he remembers bits of it, but he didn't know how bad it was. And he can't even stomach to look at the video, he's absolutely disgusted with himself and very embarrassed.' Gardai confirmed they have spoken to the man and have asked any other possible witnesses to come forward. A spokesman said: 'A suspect in the case has presented themselves at a north Dublin Garda station and gardai are following a definite line of enquiry.' Joe Herron, president of the Irish Taxi Drivers' Federation, condemned the attack.' All I can say about it is that it's absolutely horrific to watch. A message has to be sent by gardai that this isn't acceptable behaviour.' First of all, a man was attacked as he was trying to do his job. And secondly, there is absolutely no place for that kind of racist language in our society.' Vincent Kearns, chief executive of Xpert Taxis, has worked as a taxi driver and was vice president of the National Taxi Drivers Union. He told the Irish Independent that incidents like this were not uncommon for taxi drivers.' It's horrific. It's a difficult one to handle. I spent most of my life as a taxi representative, the head of a union and even now I run a taxi company with over 500 drivers.' If I get a driver, whether it be a Nigerian driver or an Indian driver, someone who is easily identifiable by race as not being Irish, I ask them if they have ever suffered any type of racial abuse. The majority of them say, 'nothing too serious, but yes'.' There are no statistics on how frequently this type of abuse happens, but I can tell you, it's frequent enough. I've certainly heard of many cases of it,' he said.