Liam Stacey gets 56 days prison for racist Fabrice Muamba tweets
LIAM Stacey has been jailed for 56 days for posting offensive tweets about Bolton Wanderers’ player Fabrice Muamba. Liam Stacey, 21, was a third-year biology student at Swansea University when he made tweets defined as racially aggravated harassment. At Swansea Magistrates Court, District Judge John Charles told him:
“It was racist abuse via a social networking site instigated as a result of a vile and abhorrent comment about a young footballer who was fighting for his life. At the moment not just the footballer’s family, not just the footballing world but the whole world were literally praying for his life, your comments aggravated this situation. I have no choice but to impose an immediate custodial sentence to reflect the public outrage at what you have done.”
Stacey cried. His tweets were:
“LOL, F*** Muamba. He’s dead. HaHa”
He told others who upbraided him for his tweets – the recipients of these messages used avatars showing them to be black:
“You wog c***, go pick some cotton” ‘You are a silly c**t, your mum was a wog and your dad was a rapist’ and ‘Go suck a n*****’s d***’.”
Miss Barron added:
“The offence is clearly racially aggravated. There was sustained and gratuitous racism. These were unprovoked comments and persistent abuse. The recipients were disgusted.”
Liam Stacey is said to be no longer welcome at Swansea University.
Good, then. Justice served. No. Can the police deal with the other who sue twitter to foment violence?
Posted: 27th, March 2012 | In: Technology Comments (19) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
March 28th, 2012 at 5:51 pm
He fell in his mum’s arms, I didn’t know he was just 21.
March 28th, 2012 at 6:32 am
But I thought you meant executed, I didn’t point anything out
March 27th, 2012 at 10:25 pm
That’s two people you have agreed with today Emma. You mellowing? By the way strung up means nervous or terrified as J pointed out. Where you get public executions from I don’t know,
March 27th, 2012 at 8:44 pm
This girl, sorry, troll, who was nothing special, aka ‘SpittyKittyCat’, who once called me a freak of nature, a long time ago, unprovoked, there was nothing to know of me, didn’t know her, just messaged me to tell me I was perverted, and not to breed, because any man who gets with me is a freak, and if I bred, it would be a freak, and what would they spawn, and to die, etc, really vitriolic rubbish I let go over my head. She’d done it to other people because you could tell by her profile. You couldn’t even report her.
March 27th, 2012 at 8:12 pm
Thanks for making me laugh Emma X
March 27th, 2012 at 8:03 pm
‘He should have been strung up’
.
That’s what we need. Public executions for drunken twitter rants. It is the kind of criminal justice that makes countries great. Indeed, we should be more like Iran – that would learn ‘em.
March 27th, 2012 at 7:59 pm
Strung up? He looked terrified on the news. I thought he did anyway. His fellow students wanted him thrown out of university where he was studying to be a forensic scientist. There is just as bad out there. Even my Nana looked shocked. People who injure their wives get less.
March 27th, 2012 at 6:23 pm
still on the cake mods? I give up…its not worth the trouble or time…
March 27th, 2012 at 6:23 pm
Round here community service is like a badge to the offenders and never gets completed. He should have been strung up, his comments were disgusting.
March 27th, 2012 at 6:21 pm
…it sounds like the judge is a sycophanticfootball fan,prone to fits of epic exaggeration …& caught up with the media & marketing of Muamba madness. Although I must admit…it is a great & almost miraculous story….just not for the twitter twat, Liam Stacey .
March 27th, 2012 at 6:19 pm
I think Community service would have been sufficient, jail is rather an overreaction, and what about future cases of racism how is that to be addressed?
Karen I agree, he has wrecked his own future anyway and that is the real punishment.
March 27th, 2012 at 5:25 pm
It sounds like the judge was following it on Twitter and got caught up in all the outrage.
March 27th, 2012 at 5:20 pm
Why whose do you read?
March 27th, 2012 at 5:08 pm
Karen – I agree. What he said was abhorrent but using prison in this way is pathetic. A strong community penalty should have been the sentence – utterly ridiculous. Are we going to lock up everyone who says anything offensive on social media?
.
Another reason to avoid twitter and facebook (I would never touch either – although I have to admit to reading the tweets of others).
March 27th, 2012 at 4:53 pm
Awful story. Embarrassing, really. As a Welshman I’m really saddened. Our little country is a brilliant melting pot of cultures and races. And a few idiots, clearly.
Oh, and your sensor missed a ‘cunt’.
March 27th, 2012 at 4:42 pm
He looks like he’s been crying. Still, the others can carry on with it.
March 27th, 2012 at 4:39 pm
I actually agréé with you two.
March 27th, 2012 at 4:33 pm
…I find the judgement & the judge slightly offensive…..” …the whole world were literally praying for his life”….. that bullshit alone should earn him a life sentence & free season ticket ….what an utter twit…
March 27th, 2012 at 3:49 pm
Sorry, I know it’s not PC or probably acceptable to say on Twitter but I think the punishment is a bit harsh.
He was pissed and acting like a dick but, considering the crimes you read about every day that result in community service or whatever, I don’t think he should be sent to prison.
He’s already been kicked off his Uni course and probably lost the chance of the career he was aiming for.