Man jailed for 15 months over ‘vile’ Southport riot social media put up | UK | News | EUROtoday

An engineer who posted on social media about burning asylum resorts to the bottom throughout final summer time’s Southport riots has been jailed for 15 months – per week after a prosecution bungle noticed him launched from custody. Joseph Haythorne urged for resorts to burn “with those scruffy b——-in it” in a put up penned simply as violence erupted outdoors a resort housing asylum seekers in Rotherham.

Haythorne, 26, posted the touch upon X, previously Twitter, at lunchtime on Aug 4, 2024, simply as an anti-immigration demonstration outdoors the Holiday Inn Express, close to Rotherham, South Yorkshire, started to descend into rioting. More than 60 cops had been injured within the violence that afternoon as lots of of individuals bombarded police and the resort with missiles. At one level, rioters set fireplace to a bin towards a hearth door of the resort, which had 240 asylum seekers inside in addition to greater than 20 employees, and a few broke into the constructing.

Sheffield Crown Court heard that Haythorne’s put up from an anonymised account, which was seen by 1,100 folks in 17 minutes earlier than he deleted it, included a hyperlink to a now-deleted put up by activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, often known as Tommy Robinson.

The defendant’s full put up learn: “Go on Rotherham. Burn any hotels with them scruffy b******s in it.”

Prosecutors mentioned the case had some similarities with the case of  Lucy Connolly, who was jailed final 12 months for 31 months after she posted on X: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the b******* for all I care… if that makes me racist so be it.”

Bianca Brasoveanu, defending Haythorne, mentioned he “made a wrongful connection between the Southport events and immigration in general” after studying a “poisonous” put up on-line.

She advised the courtroom the case was completely different to that of Connolly, whose put up was stay for hours and an investigation into her social media “revealed other posts including further racist remarks”.

“None of this was present within Mr Haythorne’s social media. The defendant is more interested in football than anything else,” Ms Brasoveanu mentioned.

She mentioned Haythorne, who’s from Ashford in Surrey, had “displayed a very different way of behaviour” by deleting the put up after 17 minutes and handing himself in at a police station.

The barrister mentioned the defendant has issues round despair which might make him susceptible in jail as his signs may worsen.

But Judge Jeremy Richardson KC locked him up after branding the defendant’s put up “vile”.

The decide mentioned Haythorne had been distressed by feedback on-line concerning the “dreadful events in Southport”, including that there had been “an awful lot of malicious and malignant nonsense on the internet”.

He decreased the sentence after contemplating the defendant’s scientific despair, his responsible plea on the earliest alternative and private mitigation.

But Judge Richardson mentioned he was certain that fast custody was vital as a result of seriousness of the offence and he jailed Haythorne for 15 months.

He mentioned: “It gives me no pleasure whatsoever in sending someone like you to prison because you have many positive attributes in life.

“But unfortunately, in that whole episode in August of last year, whilst there were some very bad people conducting themselves very badly, there were also a number of otherwise perfectly good people who did something very bad, and you are in that category.”

Earlier on Wednesday, earlier than adjourning to think about his sentence, the decide mentioned Haythorne “took leave of his senses” after being “inflamed by malignant comments on social media” and made the put up “just as the incident at Rotherham was taking off in a very unpleasant fashion”.

He learn the defendant’s put up about burning resorts and advised him: “Within one and a half to two hours, that is exactly what happened.”

Last week prosecutors had been left red-faced after Sheffield Crown Court was advised that the offence Haythorne was charged with – publishing materials meant to fire up racial hatred – required permission from the Attorney General earlier than prices will be introduced, and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had not obtained permission in his case due to an “oversight”.

The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson, mentioned any courtroom proceedings to this point had been “a nullity” and quashed Haythorne’s conviction.

The engineer, who had been remanded in custody forward of his sentencing, was launched from jail.

His case was despatched again to magistrates’ courtroom, the place he pleaded responsible to the cost for a second time leading to his look earlier than the Crown Court.