Jeremy Clarkson, BBC sued for ‘racial discrimination’

A television producer who was punched by former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson is sueing him and the BBC for racial discrimination, the broadcaster reported on Friday.

Clarkson and BBC representatives attended a hearing Friday at a London employment tribunal with Oisin Tymon which centres on alleged verbal abuse, it said.

Britain’s Daily Mirror newspaper reported that incident, which saw Clarkson axed from the BBC, arose when Tymon failed to serve steak after a day of filming in Yorkshire.

In the midst of a physical confrontation, Clarkson allegedly called Tymon as a “lazy, Irish” expletive. At the time, Tymon told the police he did not want to press charges. In the days following the assault, he was the subject of sustained abuse on the social media for his involvement in the dispute.

An official investigation was conducted by BBC Scotland boss Ken MacQuarrie and found that Tymon was “subject to an unprovoked physical and verbal attack”.

It was determined that Clarkson’s attack had “resulted in swelling and bleeding to [Tymon’s] lip”. The BBC’s press office said in a statement on Friday: “We will be responding to this claim but will not be commenting further at this time.” Clarkson was dropped from Top Gear, the high-profile BBC motoring show which has millions of fans worldwide, after hitting Tymon in March.

In July, it was announced that he plus co-stars James May and Richard Hammond had signed a deal with streaming service Amazon Prime to make a new series about cars. Clarkson, 55, had reported himself to BBC management after he admitted giving Oisin Tymon a bleeding lip for which the producer sought hospital treatment.

The presenter, known for his laddish banter and love of practical jokes, had repeatedly landed in hot water with the BBC before. In 2014, the team fled Argentina after residents hurled stones at a Porsche driven by Clarkson whose licence plates appeared to refer to the Falklands War.