Leeds Crown Court has handed down the first prison sentence for inciting racial hatred on Facebook amid unrest in the UK, the Crown Prosecution Service said on Friday.
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“The man became the first person to be sentenced to prison for inciting racial hatred on the Internet during civil unrest,” the prosecutor’s office said in a press release. It is specified that his prison term will be 20 months.
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Jordan Parlor, 28, had previously posted comments on Facebook justifying the attack on a hotel in Leeds where asylum seekers were being housed, police said.
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It is noted that amid the unrest, managers closed the hotel, stones were thrown at the building, and at least one window was broken. At the same time, as the prosecutor’s office clarifies, there is no evidence that the accused himself took part in the attack on the hotel.
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At the end of July, mass protests broke out in many British cities after a 17-year-old teenager attacked children with a knife in the city of Southport. Then three children died, several more children and two adults were taken to the hospital in critical condition.
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The protests escalated into clashes with police and riots after rumors that the perpetrator of the attack was a refugee. It later became known that the attacking teenager was born into a family of migrants from Rwanda. Hundreds of people were detained, dozens of police officers were injured during the riots organized by supporters of far-right groups.
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Amid the unrest, British authorities convened the government’s emergency COBRA committee three times. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has promised to increase police presence on the streets of British cities, speed up criminal proceedings, and prosecute those responsible for inciting unrest on social media. The Ministry of Justice reported that to counter the violence, an additional 500 places in prisons were freed up and 6 thousand employees of specialized police departments were deployed.
