Friends awarded compensation over racist bouncer

Domingos Lopes and Joanne McGuinness were subjected to abuse

Two friends who endured racist and sexist slurs from a bouncer have each been awarded £7,500 in compensation.

Domingos Lopes, 30, and Joanne McGuinness, 25, were refused entry to the Bambu Beach Club in Belfast's Odyssey complex in September 2008.

A doorman made sexually obscene remarks to Ms McGuinness and racial insults to Mr Lopes, who is Portuguese and black.

A judge at Belfast Recorder's Court found that they were discriminated against on the grounds of sex and race.

The club was then owned by Premium Bars and Restaurants PLC, but is now under different ownership.

Judge Aidan Corrigan said the pair were subjected to remarks which were unjustified and vile, and which constituted the worst type of race discrimination.

He also found that other staff, including management, witnessed what happened but did nothing to stop it.

The friends brought the action with the assistance of the Equality Commission.

Ms McGuinness said nobody deserved the treatment they received at the nightclub.

"Although we had done nothing wrong we were made to feel very small and humiliated in front of a whole queue of people," she said.

Eileen Lavery of the Equality Commission said the case demonstrated that businesses who fail to stop their staff from behaving this way will "pay a heavy penalty for it".

"In this case, the judge has included compensation for aggravated damages, and categorised this as the worst type of race discrimination," she added.