Football fan arrested after police probe ‘vulgar’ online abuse
A LLANELLI football fan was one of eight people arrested following an investigation into online abuse aimed at a Tottenham Hotspur player.
The Metropolitan Police launched an investigation after it was found that Son HeungMin had been subjected to a series of highly offensive and abusive remarks made on Twitter during Spurs’ 2-1 home defeat by Manchester United on April 11.
The probe resulted in eight men being arrested while a further four were interviewed under caution, under suspicion of using words or behaviour, or displaying written material with intent to stir up racial hatred.
The messages were first detected by United’s own online reporting tool before being flagged to police in Manchester.
Met Police have not named the player in a statement announcing the arrests on Friday, but it has been reported elsewhere as being the Spurs front-runner.
A 20-year-old from Llanelli was arrested along with a 32-year-old from Swansea and a 25-year-old from Newport, while the other five were all from England.
A 25-year-old man from Aberdare was among the four who also attended a police station to be interviewed under caution.
Detective Sergeant Matt Simpson, from the Met’s public order crime team, condemned the posts, deeming them “vulgar” and “utterly unacceptable”.
“This action makes it abundantly clear that police will not stand for racist thuggery, even if it is committed online,” he said.
“The posts were vulgar and were utterly unacceptable. There is no haven for this type of abusive behaviour and we are committed to taking decisive action.”
The arrests come as football, social media and police ramp up their efforts to eradicate hatred and abuse from the game.