Troll who mocked killing of Floyd ‘just’ spared jail

A TROLL who mocked the killing of George Floyd by a police officer has been ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.

Roofer Jordan McGhie was told he had ‘just’ avoided a jail sentence for posting an image online that went viral and prompted a public backlash.

McGhie, 27, of Cupar, Fife, sparked outrage by posing for a picture kneeling on his friend’s neck in the days after Mr Floyd was killed in the same manner by an American policeman.

Sheriff Gregor Murray told him yesterday: ‘I take a very dim view indeed of this offence. However, you have not offended for a number of years so you can, just, avoid a custodial sentence.’

Dundee Sheriff Court heard McGhie had been forced to flee his home after he posted the image.

Solicitor Catriona Clark, defending, said: ‘This was an act of drunken, gross stupidity on his part. The sequence of events was that he had not even seen the video when he posted the image of him doing this with his friend.

‘As a result of the reaction it provoked, he then looked at the original video and immediately realised the seriousness of it and removed the post. It was removed within six minutes.’ Previously, the

‘This was an act of drunken, gross stupidity on his part’

court heard McGhie posted the image in response to ‘a challenge going round on social media’ but it met a public backlash, including threats of violence towards him. He had to move house and almost lost his job, although his employer eventually stood by him, the court was told.

McGhie admitted acting in a racially aggravated manner by sending an offensive and racist image from his friend’s house in Cupar on June 2 last year. He admitted breaching the 2003 Communications Act by posting an image on social media which was ‘grossly offensive, indecent, obscene or of menacing character’.

McGhie, who has a conviction for a racist offence in 2011 and a conviction for assault to injury, is seen triumphantly holding his hands up in the air in the photo taken at his friend’s house.

The image, which carries McGhie’s real name, is captioned: ‘George Floyd challenge 2020. Raise awareness.’ It was posted a week after the death of Mr Floyd in Minneapolis sparked a global protest under the Black Lives Matter banner.

Officer Derek Chauvin, who was filmed kneeling on Mr Floyd’s neck as he pleaded ‘I can’t breathe’, has since been found guilty of his murder.