Islander posted racist Facebook abuse attacking Syrian refugees
A MAN has pleaded guilty to posting offensive online messages about Syrians who have been given refuge on a Scottish island.
Scott Clark, of Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute, yesterday admitted posting the threatening and abusive racially and religiously charged remarks on social media.
In the posts, he is understood to have said that there is an ‘Islamic invasion on Bute’, and referred to refugees as ‘savages’.
In a previous court appearance on February 17, Clark had denied the allegations against him.
Around 15 Syrian refugee families moved to Rothesay in early December as Scotland welcomed one-third of the 1,000 refugees David Cameron agreed to take from camps bordering Syria.
Appearing at Greenock Sheriff Court yesterday, Clark, 40, was supported by his partner. He is not currently in work and is prone to depression and panic attacks, the court heard.
Sentence was adjourned for preparation of reports and Sheriff Ward said Clark’s special bail conditions – that he not use social media – will continue.
Clark was arrested after posting comments from a Facebook account named ‘Scott Clark Dobbie’ to the Scottish Defence League Facebook site between February 12 and 14.
They contained racial, abusive and threatening remarks regarding refugees.
Evidence was not led to the content of the offensive posts in court, but in a series of posts to the Scottish Defence League’s Facebook page in February, an account believed to be owned by Clark said there was an ‘Islamic invasion on Bute’.
In the posts, he claimed to have seen refugees ‘in a local boozer all p ***** ’, referred to refugees as ‘dirty’ and ‘savages’ and said he would ‘cut their heads off’.
Another post read: ‘There is definitely something going down on this island, and when it does these f ****** will see the nasty side to us who have opposed their arrival from the start.’
Other comments were too explicit to be printed in a family newspaper.
Rothesay – Bute’s principal town – has a population of 7,000. It was once known as ‘the Madeira of Scotland’, but its popularity as a seaside resort has waned and it has high unemployment.
Humza Yousaf, minister for transport and the islands, hailed the refugees’ coming to the island as a ‘proud day’ at the time and welcomed them warmly.
Refugees were also re-homed in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Renfrewshire and North Ayrshire.
After the arrival of the first Syrian refugees north of the Border in November, Nationalist MP Mhairi Black criticised the ‘ignorant bile and thinly-veiled racism’ she had seen written online.
She wrote a message on her Facebook page, saying: ‘I implore everyone [to] remember these people are running from the terrorism and extremism of Daesh.’
Clark will appear again at Greenock Sheriff Court on June 22.