An NHS nurse faced a shocking racist attack by a couple walking a dog in West Yorkshire. The couple hurled water and grabbed the nurse’s hair, asking her whether she came to Britain by a “rubber boat”. The incident happened at Manor Heath Park in Halifax on Thursday. Apple Moorhouse, from Huddersfield, has been working in the NHS for the past 12 years. She was was racially abused alongside her parents and six and 11-year-old daughters, after she asked the couple to control their dog which made her youngest daughter feel “unsafe and scared”. 

The nurse of Filipino descent, a British resident for 15 years, suffered a pulled rib and bruised hands after being dragged by the hair and pushed to the ground by a woman claiming to also be a nurse. She told the Daily Mail she now feels unsafe returning to the park with her children.

She said the couple found it amusing that the dog made her daughter uncomfortable, telling her to “shut up, f*** off and go back to where you came from on the dinghy boat.” Shocking footage filmed by the nurse and her daughter shows him urging his small white dog to “kill” her as it barked aggressively. Another video shows a white woman saying she “will kill her” before aggressively grabbing her hair and snatching her phone, before falling to the floor herself. 

The man asked the nurse if she had “got off a rubber boat” and whether she had crossed the Channel, before shouting “ban the immigrants” while raising his arm. He repeated the statement with the other arm and then made an obscene gesture toward the family.

Ms Moorhouse responded that she was a healthcare worker, but the man told her to “f*** off,” prompting his partner to confront her. The woman warned Ms Moorhouse to “give it a rest” and mocked her qualifications, claiming she could be in a higher position than the nurse. She also threatened her, saying, “I’ll make you so bloody sick, you will wonder what the hell is going on.”

The woman continued to harass the family, mocking Ms Moorhouse’s father’ accent and laughing at his English. She referred to the nurse’s job as “slavery” and added that she was “going to get” her after her partner threw water at them.

Ms Moorhouse told the Daily Mail: “It is very upsetting every time I watch it back. If it was just me it would be a different matter but I was with my parents and two daughters’. I was thinking, ‘what did I do wrong?’. They made my little girl very scared.” She added that she doesn’t normally confront people but she had to as the dog was behaving uncontrollably. After receiving an aggressive response, she decided to film the scene. 

She added: “I was raised to respect the elderly, and that’s kept my cool down. I could have fought back, but I didn’t because I still respected her because I saw her just like she’s my mother. When I pushed her and struggled to get up, I felt so bad about it. I didn’t expect that it was going to get out of proportion. I am just thinking now. If I hadn’t said anything to him, this shouldn’t have happened. But maybe this happened for a reason, an eye-opener that racism still does exist, unfortunately.”

A police spokesperson told the Daily Mail: “Police received a report at 1:49pm on Thursday, 28 August, that a man and woman were being racist towards a family in Manor Heath Park, Halifax. The caller further reported that she had intervened and been assaulted with the man and woman also assaulting the mother of the family they had targeted. Neither victim was seriously injured. The suspects are described as white and aged in their 60s. The male suspect was described as wearing a pink/purple t-shirt and jeans and the female suspect as wearing jeans and a vest top.

“Officers are keen to identify the two people pictured in these images. Anyone with any information about their identities or who has any other information that could assist with the investigation into this incident, is asked to contact police in Calderdale via www.westyorkshire.police.uk/livechat or by calling 101, quoting crime reference 13250493580.

Alternatively, information can be provided to independent charity Crimestoppers via 0800 555 111 or online.”