LONDON
A man was jailed Monday to four weeks in jail for sending an anti-Semitic tweet to lawmaker Luciana Berger.
Garron Helm sent the message on August 7. He later admitted sending an offensive, indecent or obscene message at Liverpool magistrates court.
The 21-year-old was arrested and charged with sending an offensive message via a public communication network.
Helm was also ordered to pay an £80 fine to the Labour party lawmaker.
According to the crown prosecution service, Helm had used a twitter account called “Aethelwulf” which means “Noble Wolf” in old English and when Merseyside Police's Cyber Intervention Unit searched his house they discovered Nazi and far-right paraphernalia.
Claire Lindley, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said, “It is vital that the right to freedom of speech is upheld but this tweet was so grossly offensive that it crossed the threshold of criminality and was clearly targeted at Luciana Berger because of her religion.
“This is a religiously-aggravated hate crime and it won't be tolerated.”
Berger, the shadow minister for public health, told reporters Monday that the sentence had “sent out a clear message."
Adding, "hate crime is not tolerated in our country."
Berger said that she hoped that the case encouraged others to come forward and report hate crime.
Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.
