Bromwich: Simon Silwood, 50 year old, found himself being the bars for eight weeks after he had racially abuse a West Bromwich player after their 5-0 loss against Manchester City in January.
Silwood had earlier posted a ‘grossly offensive’ message against West Bromwich player Romaine Sawyer after the team has registered a 5-0 loss against Manchester City in the Premier League.
Although West Brom had already banned Silwood for life, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had more in mind after Silwood’s post was adjudged “motivated by or demonstrated hostility based on race” by the Judge.
The court ordered Silwood to pay 500 pounds ($684) in compensation and 500 pounds in court costs along with sentencing him to eight weeks of jail time.
“Silwood deliberately chose a word known to have clear racist connotations to abuse a footballer due to the colour of his skin.”
“Such behaviour will not be tolerated in football and will be prosecuted by the CPS,” said Mark Johnson of the CPS.
Sawyer had welcomed the custodial sentence and is starting to work in putting the incident behind him. He also added that he would donate the 500 pounds to a charity.
“I hope this case will serve as a deterrent to others,” he said in a statement.
“This is an incident that has affected me deeply, but I would like to encourage fellow players to report all racial abuse to the police.”
“It is widely accepted that social media companies must do more to stop the publication of racism on their platforms. I again urge them to take the necessary action required to prevent anyone from receiving the abuse I experienced.”
Several players have been subjected to racial abuse online and offline in recent months, especially in the Premier League, and English football has been piling pressure on social media firms to do more to tackle the problem.
