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The husband of a grandmother who posted on Facebook that mosques should be blown up with the adults inside has said her jail sentence is “over the top”.
Julie Sweeney, 53, was handed a 15-month jail sentence after she took to social media in the aftermath of the Southport stabbings to say: “It is absolutely ridiculous. Don’t protect the mosques. Blow the mosques up with the adults in it.”
Branding her a “keyboard warrior”, Judge Steven Everett told her that “even people like you need to go to prison”.
Speaking to The Telegraph, David Sweeney, 76, said: “Three police cars turned up, there were three officers. What’s that about? It’s too big a force for what it was. It’s just crazy.
“It’s a big loss, she’s my right arm. It does anger you, it’s over the top, well over the top. It’s difficult, it’s hard to come to terms.
“She just got angry on the night because we watched a news item with her… it just wound her up because of what had happened to the three girls.”
Arguing that the jail sentence was too harsh, he added: “It is completely out of proportion. It’s just ridiculous.”
After Sweeney posted in a local community group in Kidsgrove, Cheshire, one of the group’s 5,100 members reported it to the police.
When arrested, Sweeney told officers: “I’m not being rude but there are a lot of people saying it.”
She said she posted the comment “in anger” and that she had “no intention to put people in fear”, but conceded it was unacceptable and said she would be deleting Facebook.
Her defence lawyer said she lives a “quiet, sheltered life” and has been the primary carer for her husband since 2015.
Sentencing her at Chester Crown Court, Judge Everett told Sweeney: “You should have been looking at the news and media with horror like every right-minded person. Instead you chose to take part in stirring up hatred.
“You were part of a Facebook account which had 5,100 members. You had a big audience.
“You threatened a mosque, wherever it was. It truly was a terrible threat.
“So-called keyboard warriors like you must learn to take responsibility for your disgusting and inflammatory language.”
He said he took into account Sweeney’s previous good character and a “heart-rending letter” from her husband but went on: “In circumstances such as these, even people like you need to go to prison because a message must go out that if you do these terrible acts the court will say to you ‘you must go to prison’. I’m afraid that’s what I have to say to you today.”
