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A armchair critic who used social media to encourage rioters to attack a hotel housing asylum seekers has become the first person to be jailed for inciting unrest across the UK online.
Jordan Parlour, 28, admitted posting on Facebook last week calling for violence at a Leeds hotel where 200 asylum seekers and refugees were staying.
He was sentenced to 20 months behind bars at Leeds Crown Court this afternoon after writing on Facebook: “Every man and his dog should demolish the bloody Britannia Hotel.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer had previously warned those promoting violent unrest and stirring up racist hatred online that they would not be safe from the law.
“Whether you are directly or peripherally involved, you will be blamed and brought to justice if you have broken the law,” Starmer said.
He also confirmed that the criticized online safety bill, which London Mayor Sadiq Khan says does not serve its purpose, will be reviewed.
In passing sentence, Judge Guy Kearl KC acknowledged that Parlour had not taken part in the violence, but said: “There is no doubt that you incited others to do so. Otherwise, why would you have posted the comments?”
Defense attorney Nicholas Hammon told the judge that his client was “not part of any sinister group activity aimed at inciting violence.”
Parlour, who grimaced as he left the courtroom, is one of many convicted of racially motivated crimes today.
Tyler Kay, 26, was sentenced to 38 months in prison on Friday after inciting racial hatred by posting on social media to call on rioters to set fire to hotels housing asylum seekers.
The father-of-three was sentenced to 38 months in prison at Northampton Crown Court just two days after he wrote and shared the posts, which Judge Adrienne Lucking KC described as “utterly abhorrent”.
Kay retweeted a post on X in which the wife of a Tory councillor called for mass deportations, saying: “Set fire to all the fucking hotels full of these bastards,” adding: “If that makes me a racist, then so be it.”
The judge accused him of having a “fundamentally racist” attitude and added: “I am sure that your intention in deliberately creating these posts was to incite racial hatred.”
Stacey Vint, 34, pushed a burning wheelie bin into a police line before falling to the ground and being arrested in Middlesbrough town centre. She was sentenced to 20 months in prison.
She was part of the group that set fire to a garbage can and then pushed it into a police cordon – but she fell to the ground right at the feet of the police officers.
Another wheelie bin incident made its way online last Friday when 43-year-old Leanne Hodgson shared a video of herself attempting to push a wheelie bin into a police line in Sunderland.
Hodgson was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after calling one police officer a “fucking black asshole” and deliberately bumping into another.
Newcastle Crown Court was told she was “clearly under the influence of alcohol and was verbally abusive towards officers”. One officer described Hodgson “running straight towards him and colliding with him”.
More people are likely to be convicted of inciting racist hatred online throughout the day.
One of them is 34-year-old Richard Williams from Buckley in Flintshire. Mold Magistrates Court heard that he had shared a derogatory meme about migrants in a Facebook group dedicated to the protests and pleaded guilty to sending threatening messages.
Two men were previously jailed after attacking “pro-EDL” protesters during clashes between rival demonstrations in Leeds last week.
Sameer Ali, 21, was sentenced to 20 months in prison, while Adnan Ghafoor, 31, received an 18-month prison sentence.
Surveillance camera footage showed a group of Asian men kicking and beating a group of four white men. The white men allegedly hurled racist abuse at the Asian group, using swear words such as “f*** Allah” and other expressions.
