•British police maintain peace on the streets
Two men were jailed for a total of five years today for their role in publishing Facebook posts ”intended to stir racial hatred”and also calling for the destruction of a hotel housing 200 asylum seekers in Leeds, during the recent riots in the UK.
Jordan Parlour, 28, of Brooklands Close, Leeds, appeared at Leeds Crown Court yesterday charged with publishing written material intended to stir racial hatred, reports AFP.
The charge related to posts he put on Facebook in relation to the Britannia Hotel in Seacroft, which houses refugees and asylum seekers.
For his part, he was handed a 20-month sentence.
Also, a company director Tyler Kay who repeated vile anti-immigrant comments posted by the wife of a Tory councillor was jailed for 38 months at Northampton Crown Court – after boasting online that he would ‘categorically’ not be arrested.
Prosecuting Counsel, Matthew Donkin said staff members at the hotel noted that stones had been thrown and windows damaged between August 2 and August 3.
Donkin also said Kay also reposted a screenshot of another message inciting action against a named immigration solicitors in Northampton, and other posts attributable to him showed a desire to be involved in organised protests in the town.
”Following the tragic events in Southport, there was then on the 30th July an episode of public disorder in Southport itself, spreading on the 31st July with disorder in Manchester, Hartlepool, Aldershot and London” he said.
The prosecutor also added: “Those are the posts including the initial one. From his account as the police had it on his phone, his initial post had received six likes or thumbs up, the second one about refugees being over here received a single thumbs up and another Facebook user replied: ‘Wouldn’t do owt, people doing it the wrong way and it’s too late now we’re the minority.’”
The court heard that Parlour’s messages were spread widely, which the judge, the Recorder of Leeds Judge Guy Kearl KC, said was ‘plainly your intention.’
Asked online ‘why’ he was encouraging the hotel attack, Parlour wrote, ‘Because they’re over here, given a life of riley off the tax us hardworking people earn when it could be put to better use’.
Officers arrested Parlour during the early hours. He said he wrote the ‘smashing’ post out of ‘anger and frustration.’
Mr Donkin said Parlour believed asylum seekers were taking taxpayers money off working people and ‘raping our kids.’
Parlour recognised how ‘stupid’ he had been, the court was told.
