Police and employer probe football fan behind White Lives Matter banner stunt
A BURNLEY fan who claimed to be behind the “White Lives Matter” banner flown during Monday’s clash with Manchester City was being investigated by police.
Jake Hepple, 24, already faces a life ban from his club over the stunt.
And yesterday his girlfriend was suspended from her job over “abhorrent racist” posts on her social media account.
Lancashire Police had been trying to establish whether any criminal charges can be brought against him.
However, last night they said “after assessing all the information available surrounding this incident we have concluded that there are no criminal offences that have been disclosed at this time”.
The Clarets – who were thrashed 5-0 – were in the early moments of their game at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester when the plane flew past carrying the message “White Lives Matter Burnley!”
Deleted
Just minutes earlier the players had “taken the knee” in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Hepple, from Colne, Lancs, later appeared to claim responsibility for the banner, posting a video on Facebook.
He added: “I’d like to take this time to apologise ... TO ABSOLUTELY *** NOBODY!
“It’s now apparently racist to say white lives matter.”
However, Hepple was said to be “in hiding” yesterday and his social media accounts have been deleted.
One of the posts featured a selfie with English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson along with some racist comments.
One referred to “swinging spear throwers” making England shirts.
Yesterday there were calls on Twitter for him to be fired from his job at an engineering firm.
Paradigm Precision said: “A full investigation is being carried out into potential breaches of a number of the company’s equality, diversity and social media policies. Paradigm does not condone racism.”
And Hepple’s girlfriend Megan Rambadt was suspended from her job at a footcare clinic after bosses were alerted to alleged racism on her social media – also since deactivated. In 2018, she reportedly tweeted her hometown of Burnley was “pretty grim” describing the town centre as “like a foreign country”. She said immigrants should be sent back to their country of origin on their “banana boats”.
Jane Walsh, co-owner at Solace Foot Health and Reflexology, took action after being made aware of the posts. Chief Superintendent Russ Procter said: “This banner will have caused offence to many people in Lancashire and beyond.”
Burnley FC condemned the banner on Monday night. Captain Ben Mee said: “We were embarrassed, disappointed, upset. We are embarrassed that our name was in it.”