The owner of an ice cream parlour in Hilversum who attacked a youth who threw a mandarin orange at her shop with a mop will not face any punishment, judges said on Wednesday.

The woman had gone through months of racist bullying and vandalism and was ‘understandably very emotional’ when the fruit was thrown at the window, the court said.

Gillyon Emanuels was with her two-year-old son when three young men began making racist remarks and called her a ‘cancer ape’ and told her to ‘climb back in your tree’.

She grabbed a mop from her shop and hit one of the youths, then aged 18, on his hand and arm. One of the other youths filmed the incident on his mobile phone.

Evidence

The public prosecution department decided to prosecute the case after efforts at mediation failed and said there was no evidence that she attacked in self-defence.

And despite making two police complaints, including one about a Suriname flag covered with excrement, there was no evidence that Emanuels had been subject to systematic racial harassment, the department said.

One of the youths, now aged 19, is also facing court for the racist abuse.

‘If I had been found guilty, it would have been a stab in the back,’ Emanuels told broadcaster NOS after the verdict. The past 18 months have been a ‘nightmare’, she said. ‘My life has been at a standstill.’