MAn jAilED for twEEt CAmpAign

Anthony Groom locked up for Christmas

A man who targeted his work colleague with offensive and racist tweets will spend Christmas behind bars. Anthony Groom, (46), had worked with the victim, a Muslim, for nearly 10 years at a Peterborough security firm and had previously made offensive comments i n the workplace.

Thevictim, amaninhis30s from Peterborough, reported Groom had posted offensive matteronTwitter. Groomhad contacted the victim and the latter had clicked on his profile not knowing it was him.

He found the profile full of insulting tweets, re-tweets andhashtags about Islam and terrorism. Officers believe Groom deliberately interacted with the victim on Twitter, knowinghewouldthenseehis profile.

Groom, of Church Street, Werrington, wasarrestedand given bail - but continued to post offensive comments.

Now magistrates have jailed him for eight weeks after sending, by public communication, offensive matter.

Magistrates said Groom’s tweeting was“very inflammatory” and “insulting” and had “badly affected the victim.”

Groom was given credit as it wasthefirstoffencerecorded against him.

Along with the jail sentence, he was also ordered to pay £500 compensation and a £115 surcharge.

DC Josh Coe, who investigated, welcomedthesentence - and warned others action wouldbetakenagainstpeople whocarriedoutsimilarbehav- iour on social media.

He said: “I t was clear Groom had interacted with the victim on Twitter so he wouldviewhis profile andsee the inflammatory material.

“We take this type of hate crime very seriously and the sentence shows the courts do too. Nooneshouldhavetoput up with this type of offensive material andIwouldurgeother victims to contact police.

“We will take allegations very seriously and investigate them thoroughly.”

People can report hate crime by calling 101, or 999 in an emergency, or via the Cambridgeshire Constabulary website. Alternatively, if people would prefer not to go directly to the police, they can report incidents online via the third party reporting scheme True Vision. This can be accessed via www.reportit.org.uk/