Man jailed for the racist abuse of England players
FOOTBALL FAN LIVESTREAMED RANT ON FACEBOOK
A WEST London football fan who livestreamed himself on Facebook racially abusing three England players after the Euro 2020 final has been jailed.
Jonathon Best, 52, from Feltham, used the social networking site to rant about Black players Jadon Sancho, Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford, who all missed shootout penalties as England lost to Italy at Wembley on July 11.
On November 2, Willesden Magistrates’ Court heard the forklift truck driver had drunk at least 12 beers and five double Bacardis when he posted the 18-second clip.
Best went to a pub in Twickenham to watch the game with friends but was ‘out of it’ by the end, when the three players aged between 19 and 23 all missed their spot kicks as the England men’s team crashed to defeat.
He was caught out after a colleague and Facebook friend reported the clip to both Facebook and the police after Best refused to take it down.
Facebook took the clip down three days later.
At Willesden Magistrates’ Court
Best was sentenced to 10 weeks in custody.
He had previously pleaded guilty to sending by public communication network a grossly offensive or indecent or obscene or menacing message or matter.
Elaine Cousins, from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: “While the majority of the nation took great pride in the Three Lions reaching their first international final in more than 50 years, Jonathon Best took to Facebook to livestream a barrage of racist abuse at the three players who missed penalties during the game.
“He used social media to publicly vilify these three young men who tried to score for England. When approached by a Facebook friend asking him to remove the grossly offensive content, Best replied ‘it’s my profile, I can do what I want.’
“There is absolutely no room in the game, nor elsewhere, for racism.
“The CPS is committed to bringing perpetrators of hate crime to justice where there is the evidence to do so.
“I would like to thank the individual who reported this appalling hate crime and I hope this prosecution goes someway in educating and deterring people from posting hate on social media.”
The CPS is currently working with the police, player bodies and organisations, to explain what evidence is needed to pass our legal tests to authorise charges in hate crime cases.
Elizabeth Jenkins, also from the CPS, said: “Hate crimes such as these have a massive impact on players and their mental health.
“The CPS takes this kind of offending very seriously and this case shows that where offensive content is reported to the police we can successfully bring offenders to justice.”