A SNP supporter was convicted of threatening George Galloway with violence over Twitter by telling the Scots politician: “We will get you”.
Kyle Forrest, 26, sent the social media message during last year’s Scottish Parliament election when Galloway was a candidate.
Giving evidence at the trial on Tuesday, Galloway told how the tweet left him fearing he would be “physically attacked”.
Cops were forced to guard him during the voting campaign, he added, while he was concerned there could be a repeat of a “politically motivated” assault he suffered in 2014.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard Forrest sent a message saying: “See you Galloway, we will get you, you understand??”
Forrest told his trial he was being “competitive” not “threatening”, and meant the SNP would beat the All For Unity unionist party, founded by Galloway, at the ballot box.
Sheriff Peter McCormack found Forrest guilty of a charge of threatening or abusive behaviour likely to cause a reasonable person fear or alarm by uttering a threat of violence to Galloway over Twitter.
Galloway, who has more than 444,000 Twitter followers, was a candidate in the south of Scotland when he received the tweet on May 3 2021.
He explained the tweet came in the “context” of a 2014 attack on him in London which later saw his assailant jailed for 16 months.
The politician said another man had also been convicted of “thrice threatening to shoot me in the head on Twitter”.
Asked by fiscal depute Gillian Coren what he thought of Forrest’s tweet, dad-of-six Galloway said: “To be publicly threatened in this way, in the middle of a democratic election campaign, was truly frightening.”
Galloway likened “See you Galloway” to the phrase “See you Jimmy”. He said anyone using “See you Jimmy” was “not advancing to give you a slice of banoffee pie”, adding: “It’s threatening language.”
Galloway said Forrest was a “complete stranger” but he saw on the accused’s Twitter account a personal photo next to an “Irish tricolour”.
He added: “In Scotland we are in a pre-Troubles era. The conflation of Irish republican language and Scottish nationalism is a very clear one.”
About the tweet he said: “For me, this was as clear a threat of violence as it’s possible to construct.”
He told the court it didn’t stop him from participating in the election as to do otherwise would be “surrendering to terrorism”.
Galloway said: “I didn’t hide away because that would be to succumb, but it required me to step up security at a cost to the state. The police were having to stand beside me as I stood on a soapbox.”
Galloway said he alerted police about the tweet and a “contact in the anti-terrorism branch at Scotland Yard”.
Giving evidence, Forrest said he’d been on Twitter a year and was “interested in politics” when he messaged Galloway.
Forrest said he’d become aware of the All for Unity party but “wasn’t fully aware” of who Galloway was beyond that.
The dad said he saw messages on social media from All For Unity supporters and perceived some to be “racist”.
Forrest said his 9am message was intended to mean “the Scottish National Party will beat you in the election.”
He added: “I was being competitive. It was not of a threatening nature.
“I’m ashamed of the hurt I have caused for Mr Galloway. As soon as I heard he took it that way I felt bad as a human being.”
Sheriff McCormack deferred sentence on Forrest, of Danderhall, Midlothian, until next month for reports.
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