'I'll kill you!' - Buskers tell RTE Liveline of horrific racial abuse on the street
Joe Duffy shared an exclusive audio clip of the altercation in Wexford, as death threats and racial slurs can be heard
A mother and daughter have told of the horrific abuse they suffered while busking on the street in Wexford recently.
Alice and daughter Katelyn were in Wexford busking on Mother's Day when they became victims of racial slurs and abuse from a man and woman pushing a buggie with their child, they told RTE's Liveline hosted by Joe Duffy.
Liveline shared an exclusive audio clip of the incident on Wednesday, which is now being treated as 'a serious hate crime' by An Garda Síochána.
"There was a mocking jeer in his voice...so I confronted him," Alice, Katelyn's mother started as she explained what had happened.
"He basically unleashed a barrage of insulting threats so I just listened to him...he was saying the same shots over and over I'll kill you, I'll kill you and then he said I'll get her to kill you," Alice continued.
In the clip, the man can be heard saying, "just give me an excuse, just touch me, touch me...for your own safety just go now! Go! I'm going to get her to kill you...do you want me to get her to kill you?"
The man and woman then called the mother and daughter very offensive racial slur words before saying, "what are you going to do? What are you going to do?".
Katelyn and her mother shared the video clip to gardaí in Wexford, who according to Liveline, are treating the incident as a hate crime.
Gardaí said that investigations are ongoing into the incident that had occurred.
Katelyn said: "The possibility of me, or my mother, being assaulted was quite high. I am quite fortunate to have escaped" and her mother continued with, "I didn't know if he was going to physically hit me or whether his female companion was going to hit me."
"People should be allowed to walk their own streets, a lot of locals are saying the town is not safe," Alice told Liveline.
"People are roaming around in gangs causing mayhem on a regular basis to the point where shop owners are saying retail is down and people are saying they can't let their teens go about their own town."
Katelyn said she will continue to busk despite what had happened and will not let this deter her from her passion for preforming publicly.