Monday, 23 Sep 2024

Chelsea football fan jailed for racist and antisemitic tweets aimed at Spurs fans

A Chelsea fan who posted antisemitic and racist tweets aimed at Tottenham Hotspur fans has been jailed for eight weeks.

Nathan Blagg had told police his tweets were “banter between mates”, but they included photos of Auschwitz and a man doing a Nazi salute.

He was sentenced on Tuesday after pleading guilty to seven counts of sending offensive messages between 29 September last year and 5 February.

Blagg, from Retford, Nottinghamshire, posted a picture of the train tracks to Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz on Twitter with the message: “Spurs are on their way to Auschwitz”, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.

Another post featured a faked picture of former health secretary Matt Hancock holding a microphone saying the same thing.

Other tweets included a photo and video of Nazi salutes, and one message, referring to the German phrase adopted by Adolf Hitler’s party, read: “Sieg Heiling around my living room as we speak.”

Prosecutor David Roberts said the tweets about the Tottenham side were more offensive in the context of “a history of association with the Jewish community”.

The messages were spotted by a West Bromwich fan and investigated by the security team at Chelsea, who passed them on to police.

District Judge Michael Hamilton described Blagg’s tweets as “abhorrent and grossly offensive”, adding that only an immediate jail sentence would be a suitable punishment.

The judge said: “Quite frankly, the content of these messages was despicable.

“References to the holocaust and other matters cannot on any view ever be categorised a banter.”

Road construction worker Blagg, 21, has removed himself from Twitter and has been banned from attending football matches.

Maeve Thornton, representing Blagg, who lives with his parents, told the court he had a “lack of maturity”.

She added that he had “taken responsibility for his actions” and that the risk of him re-offending was “very low”.

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