A video has emerged of a woman ranting at patients in a hospital waiting room. The two-minute clip, filmed on Saturday night at Ipswich Hospital in Suffolk, saw the woman shout abuse at students Gina Thompson, 23, of Nigeria, and her 21-year-old Spanish friend. The woman asked them where they came from before saying: "You're coming over here and you're pleading poverty. We are paying taxes, you a**holes, and we are going down in this crisis."
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The incident took place at 7:30pm in the hospital's accident and emergency department waiting room, where Miss Thompson had gone with her friend who had sprained her ankle playing sports. Miss Thompson, of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, is a film and media student at University Campus Suffolk and has been in the UK for two years, while her friend from Seville, Spain, arrived last September.
The woman shouted in front of about 20 shocked patients and friends or relatives: "‘What has happened to this f*****g country?!", before directly abusing Miss Thompson. She asked her "Where do you come from?", to which Miss Thompson replied: "What does it matter where I'm from?" The woman then continued: "We are paying taxes you a**holes and we are going down in this crisis", before Miss Thompson replied:
"Don't call me an a**hole".
But the woman wouldn't calm down: "I will, because you're coming over here and you're pleading poverty. I am not well." But Miss Thompson responded: "You won't call me an a**hole. I will not accept that. Don't call me an a**hole. Don't come to my face and insult me. You won't do that. Calling me an a**hole? Are you alright?"
The woman said back: "Don't accept it, you fat a**hole," before a voice off camera said the police had been called. The woman was then apprehended by a group of nurses, paramedics and security guards, saying: "There's a revolution going on here."
Miss Thompson told MailOnline after the incident: "I was so embarrassed and I couldn’t do anything because I was stuck in the situation, so we just had to laugh about it. All the attention was on us. She said I've come here to claim poverty. That's not true. I'm an international student and I pay £13,000 a year intuition fees. My friend is a student here from Spain."
"It made me feel low of myself. I had to go back home and question why it was wrong I was here. My friend was surprised. She was scared, she was terrified. She kind of felt unsafe afterwards. She is Spanish and her English is not perfect, but she could sort of understand what the woman was saying. When she got back home, she said: "Are we in trouble?"
"This woman was a very normal-looking woman who you wouldn't think would abuse you. How many people are the same like that? I’m scared."
A Suffolk Constabulary spokesman told MailOnline: "We have arrested and charged somebody. She has been charged with assault on a police officer, two counts of racially aggravated assault and two charges of assault. So, five charges altogether. She is due to appear at Ipswich Magistrates' Court on the 20th February. She was arrested at the A&E department on Saturday evening and she was brought in. She was charged on Sunday night."
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