A Northumberland man has apologised in court for racially abusing a Premier League footballer online.
Antonio Neill sent Ivan Toney an "exceptionally offensive" message on social media, an image of which the disgusted Brentford striker subsequently shared on Twitter. The incident was reported to police in October last year and officers managed to trace the message to an address in North Shields.
Neill, of Robert Street, in Blyth, was arrested and appeared at Newcastle Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, where he pleaded guilty to sending an offensive message. He also apologised for his behaviour and said: "I want to say sorry about what I said to Ivan. I'm disgusted and ashamed about it. I want to become a better person."
District Judge Paul Currer said the message, which was not read out, was "exceptionally offensive" and he was treating it "very seriously". He added: "I have read the papers. It's an exceptionally offensive message with no context at all.
"It's got racial overtones, which would place it in a category with a starting point of a medium-level community order. It falls squarely in those guidelines, so I will need a pre-sentence report."
District Judge Currer adjourned the case until March 30 after Neill has been sentenced for an unrelated, violent offence at the crown court. The judge continued: "Given the aggravating feature of the racially-motivated insult, which is exceptionally offensive, I do regard it as a very serious offence."
Kash Khan, defending, told the court Neill had been isolated from his family at the time and "behaved in a way he would never normally dream of acting". Mr Khan continued: "He is extremely remorseful, he was under the influence of a significant amount of alcohol at the time."
The solicitor said that Neill's family had tried to reach out to Brentford to apologise for his behaviour prior to the matter being reported to the police.
Neill, 24, was released on unconditional bail to next appear at the same court on March 30.
Toney received the racist message on social media on October 14 last year, soon after the footballer scored twice during his team's win over Brighton. Speaking after Neill was tracked down, Superintendent Scott Cowie, hate crime lead for Northumbria Police, said: “There is absolutely no place for discrimination of any kind in society – whether that’s within our communities or online.
“Hate crime in any form is totally unacceptable, and as a force, we are committed to taking appropriate action against anybody found to be spreading this type of abuse. We would like to thank the victim for his support and cooperation throughout this case, as well as our colleagues in the Metropolitan Police who assisted our enquiries.
"Anyone who receives online abuse or believes they have been a victim of a hate crime is asked to always report it, so it can be fully investigated. We’d also ask members of the public who see, read or hear any offensive, racist or homophobic language at fixtures or online to get in touch with us.”
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