A SHETLAND man has been hit with a £500 fine for saying the word "n*****" as he sang along to a Wu-Tang Clan song on TikTok while in a ladies' toilet.
Kyle Siegel's use of the racial slur left a woman of mixed race in a cubicle "severely shocked", a court heard.
Siegel, of Norgaet, Lerwick, admitted saying the word at the Scalloway Boating Club in the early hours of February 20.
But Lerwick Sheriff Court was told it accepted the 25-year-old did not know the complainant was in a cubicle as he sang the hip-hop tune Protect Ya Neck.
The offensive term is mentioned several times in the 1993 track.
Siegel admitted conducting himself in a disorderly manner, entering the female toilets in which a number of people were present - including the woman of mixed race - and uttering the word.
Procurator Fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said the incident happened at about 1am when a birthday party was going on at the club.
Mackenzie said the singing was loud enough for the complainer to hear, with an argument then developing before it was reported to the police.
Tommy Allan, Siegel's lawyer, said his client was “singing along to a TikTok on a friend’s phone”.
He said the song in question was Wu-Tang Clan’s Protect Ya Neck. Allan told Sheriff Ian Cruickshank that they were a well-established group formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992, with members of an “ethnic background”.
The defence solicitor said a few issues arose from the case, such as “artistic freedom”, but he noted Siegel was not a “person of colour”.
He said Siegel accepted "he crossed the line" but did not mean any harm.
Sheriff Cruickshank fined Siegel £500 for the offence and ordered him to pay an additional victim surcharge of £20.
