Racists 'threatened to set postman on fire'

The wife of an Asian postman spoke out today about the years of racist abuse and threats he suffered at the hands of his colleagues.

Mahmood Siddiqui, 59, won almost £200,000 in compensation after an employment tribunal found he had been the victim of a "vicious and sly" four-year race-hate campaign at the postal sorting office where he worked.

Colleagues branded him a " spearchucking rag-head", vandalised his car and threatened to harm his wife and three children.

On one occasion a colleague ignited a cigarette lighter in front of Pakistani-born Mr Siddiqui and threatened to burn him.

Speaking of the "terrible years of abuse" her husband had to endure, Mrs Siddiqui, 49, said that despite the damages awarded to him against Royal Mail for racial discrimination, he had still not recovered from the "nightmare".

Mrs Siddiqui said: "He is still very depressed and still has to take medication. He hasn't recovered from it at all and the money won't help in that respect. He still suffers from anxiety due to the stress he was put under and my husband is not the same man he was before all this happened."

The tribunal was told the abuse began in late 1994 and worsened after Mr Siddiqui suffered an accident at work which left him unable to lift heavy loads.

Colleagues at the Royal Mail sorting office in Harlow accused him of "malingering". One told him he was "f***ing useless" and another called him a "spear-chucking rag-head".

The panel found that Mr Siddiqui's immediate shift manager, Mick Cassell, did not want to work with him and gave "tacit support" to the abuse and was reluctant to investigate any of his complaints.

Mrs Siddiqui said the abuse started in 1990 as soon as her husband started working as a postman. "Mahmood was suffering from the very first day, even though it was said at the tribunal that the abuse began in 1994.

"For some reason his colleagues didn't like him and made every day hell. He loved doing the job itself but he dreaded the racism that came with it."

She said: "He had been out of work before he got the job and couldn't wait to get started. He was really proud to be working for Royal Mail but on his first day he came home looking really down. I asked him what the matter was and he said his colleagues have a problem with him. The racism started then and never seemed to go away. It just got worse and worse.

"One day he went into work and there was graffiti on the walls with the message: 'Hang him'.

"There were so many incidents and he was really scared. One time someone lit a cigarette lighter in front of him and said he was going to set him on fire. Other times he was sworn at, bullied and called Paki by his colleagues. They made his life a misery.

"It affected me and our three children as well. We were terrified they were going to come to the house and do something to us."

Mr and Mrs Siddiqui came to England from Pakistan in the late Eighties and moved to Essex.

She said: "We have lived here since then and have never encountered racism before. We have always lived peaceful lives."

Mr Siddiqui said after the tribunal ended yesterday: "I have suffered continuously for over 10 years since I joined the Royal Mail and I have been on medication for stress the last three or four years. It was so bad at times that I would collapse. Every day I went in was an ordeal. They tried everything, threats to my wife and children, graffiti and daily abuse, it was terrible, just terrible."