Police officer called arrested man 'a nigger', court told Mauro Demetrio's recordings feature the voice of a Metropolitan police officer later identified as PC Alex MacFarlane. A riot officer told a young black man under arrest in the back of a police van: "The problem with you is that you will always be a nigger," a court has been told. Southwark crown court was played two brief audio recordings made by Mauro Demetrio, 21, as he was being taken in the van to Forest Gate police station in east London on the fringes of the city's rioting last August. One of the brief recordings features the voice of a Metropolitan police officer later identified as PC Alex MacFarlane, 53, using "nigger" as well as other phrases including: "You will always have black skin colour," "Don't hide behind your colour," and "Don't hide behind your black skin." A clearly agitated Demetrio can be heard shouting out MacFarlane's lapel number and promising to complain about the words, saying: "It's going to go all the way." MacFarlane, who denies a racially aggravated public order offence, said later he was trying to "defuse the situation" by chatting to Demetrio, and was simply trying to explain he had not been targeted because of his skin colour, said Duncan Atkinson, prosecuting. In fact, Atkinson said, the officer was trying to "put Mr Demetrio in his place by demeaning him and distressing him." He said: "It is clear that this abuse was racially motivated, and was targeted and was intended. Such words were designed to cause - and did cause - distress and insult. They were designed to suggest to Mr Demetrio that he was inferior to the officer because of the colour of his skin. MacFarlane had undergone diversity training, which would have made clear that "nigger" was an unacceptable word in any circumstances, Atkinson said, adding: "Whatever the circumstances, it is clear that the defendant was on duty and under obligation to remain calm and professional." The incident began, Atkinson said, just before 6pm on 11 August last year when the officers stopped Demetrio and a friend as they drove their car through east London. Demetrio was arrested and handcuffed after the officers said they smelled cannabis. Though no evidence for this was later uncovered, a radio check found Demetrio was wanted for two outstanding warrants and he was arrested. In the police van, Demetrio alleges, he was part-strangled and shoved against a window by another officer, Atkinson said. A doctor found evidence of neck bruising but no charges were brought in connection with this. However, Demetrio pulled his phone from a pocket and recorded an initial exchange with the other police officer, who responds to his shouts with: "Give it a rest, you're just a scumbag." Asked by Demetrio why he tried to strangle him, this officer replied: "I did strangle you." Asked why again, he replied: "Because you're a cunt," before adding that Demetrio had been struggling and kicking. Giving evidence, Demetrio said he began the recording after enduring other abuse and mockery from some of the nine or 10 officers in the van, including references to them receiving oral sex from his mother and renditions of songs including The Wheels on the Bus. After recording the first exchange, Demetrio said, he started the phone again and taped the conversation with MacFarlane. Asked how the officer's words made him feel he said: "It made me feel like shit, really. At that point it was, like, it can't get any worse. I felt violated. Demetrio accepted the tapes showed him shouting and being abusive - at one point he calls the officer who allegedly throttled him a "fat mug" - but said this was merely a response to the physical and verbal abuse he experienced. Atkinson told the court that in three initial police interviews earlier this year about his comments to Demetrio, MacFarlane said only that he had "engaged him in conversation" but that they began arguing. On being played the recording during a fourth interview MacFarlane said he believed he had heard Demetrio first use "nigger" when asking why he had been arrested but his white friend set free. MacFarlane said he had repeated the term, "thinking, probably wrongly, it was acceptable in the context of our exchange." MacFarlane denies intending to cause harassment, alarm or distress to Demetrio and using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour. The trial, which is expected to last two to three days, continues.