Community service for threat to Ardern

A 20-year-old man from Northern Ireland has been sentenced to 100 hours of community service after sending death threats to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Matthew Burns, 19, from County Armagh, has pleaded guilty to sending Ardern a photo on March 20 (local time) of a gun with a silencer with the message: ‘‘You’re next.’’

The threat was sent on Twitter, five days after the March 15 Christchurch mosque attacks.

Burns faced five charges of improper use of electronic communications, with messages of a menacing and grossly offensive nature from June 14, last year, to March 20, this year, the BBC reported.

The case began when New Zealand police informed Northern Irish police of the threats Burns made against Ardern on Twitter.

Burns also wrote about Khan and his wife on social media in December: ‘‘it would be a shame if something happened to her ... like a bullet in the head and him too’’.

District judge Eamonn King said the New Zealand authorities did not want Burns to be prosecuted but ‘‘spoken to’’.

He said the sentence ‘‘will get you out from behind your smartphone and iPad, for you to engage with people’’, the BBC reported. ‘‘If you do not complete it, you will be brought back to court for a custodial sentence.’’

The Irish News reported that King said Burns had ‘‘low selfesteem’’.

‘‘In the reports presented to the court on your behalf, there are issues ... When you put offensive comments online you are met with a blizzard of responses and engagement. That increases your feeling of self-worth. You feel more important.

‘‘Someone is listening to you and it increases your self-esteem.’’