A man has been sentenced to 38 months in prison after posting racist material on a memorial website to a murdered black teenager.
After Anthony Walker, 18, of Huyton, Merseyside, was murdered a friend set up a website in his honour.
But less than a week after his death a 30 year old man posted at least six messages on the website inciting racial hatred.
The man, Neil Martin, from Maghull, Merseyside posting under the name ‘Genuine Scouser’ suggested that white people should celebrate the murder, that Anthony’s family should be burned and made references to slavery.
When he was arrested police officers found 33 child pornography images on his computer.
Martin admitted posting the messages but insisted he was not racist. He told officers his intentions were to simply stir up an argument on the website but did not believe in what he had written.
During the trial at Liverpool Crown Court, Judge Henry Globe QC told Martin: “The intention of the website was innocent, honourable and well motivated
“You accessed that website and you abused it. You posted highly abusive, insulting and racist messages.”
The court heard how Martin had created an internet profile using Anthony’s name and photograph, and he also posed as a schoolgirl on teenage chatrooms.
Heather Lloyd, defending, said Martin had no history of racist behaviour and that he felt “deeply ashamed.”
She added her client had written a letter of apology to both the court and to the Walker family.
After the verdict, Gee Walker, Anthony’s mother, said she was satisfied by the verdict and did not accept the written apology.
“After hearing what he had said in those messages, I don’t buy it. I don’t accept it. He had time to think about it and he did it six times. I don’t accept his apology.”
Martin pleaded guilty to charges of publishing material likely to cause racial hatred and also to making indecent photographs of children.
He was sentenced to two years and eight months for the race hate crimes and a consecutive six months for the child pornography offences.
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2 comments:
Structure: You have demonstrated a good grasp of news structure here and written this in tight flowing paragraphs, although it would perhaps have been better to fill in details of the ‘who’ of the story in your second par.
Accuracy and spelling: good
Punctuation: a couple of errors around quotes.
Balance: Well balanced with details of the plea and appropriate quotes.
Audience: Written appropriately for your audience.
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