A man who posted racially abusive online messages about England soccer player Jess Carter received a suspended jail sentence on Wednesday.
Nigel Dewale, a 60-year-old man from Great Harwood in Lancashire, northern England, sent two posts from his TikTok account during last year’s Women’s European Championship.
He sent them in response to a news article about police investigating online racial abuse received by Carter earlier in the tournament following England’s matches against France and Sweden.
The messages were later traced to Dewale, who was arrested and charged.
He was sentenced at Blackburn Magistrates’ Court to six weeks in custody, suspended for 12 months, having previously pleaded guilty to sending a grossly offensive message via a public communications network.
Dewale also received a four-year football banning order, although the court was told he had not attended matches for “many years,” and must abide by a three-month curfew and complete a community order of 10 rehabilitation days.
The 28-year-old Carter plays her club soccer for Gotham FC in the United States. She stopped using social media following the racist abuse, which according to prosecutor Graeme Tindall left her “anxious and genuinely scared” and not wanting to leave her hotel during the Euros.
Carter has since spoken out about the stereotypes facing Black women in Britain.
Close to a jail sentence
District Judge Tony Watkin told Dewale he had “come very close indeed” to sending him to jail but took into account the impact it would have on his 20-year-old daughter, who suffers from epilepsy. Dewale is her primary carer and Bradley Hayes, who defended Dewale, said she would be “very much disadvantaged” by an immediate custodial sentence.
The judge considered the defendant had a “realistic prospect of rehabilitation.”
“You targeted her for no other reason than she was a prominent, female footballer,” Watkin told Dewale regarding the abuse toward Carter. “It caused substantial distress and fear to your victim.
“There is a view held by some that offenses of this nature are somehow less serious because they are committed behind a screen. The very opposite is true. Those messages have real-world consequences. In this instance, they caused someone who had risen to prominence through her talent and ability to have to change her behaviors.”
___
AP soccer: