Man jailed for tweets aimed at Muslim work colleague

Categories: Latest News
Wednesday December 14 2016
Local paper, Peterborough Today, reports on the sentencing of a man who targeted a Muslim work colleague with “offensive material” on Twitter.
Anthony Groom, 46, had worked with the victim at a Peterborough based security firm for nearly 10 years and had previously been known to make offensive comments in the workplace.
Groom appeared before Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on a charge of sending offensive material via a public communications network and the material was racially aggravated.
The court heard Groom posted material on Twitter targeting his colleague. Police believe Groom deliberately posted the material on his profile knowing the colleague would learn it was him.
The victim contacted police in August 2016 after discovering the page containing “insulting tweets, re-tweets and hashtags about Islam and terrorism”.
Groom was arrested and bailed but continued to post similar material.
Groom admitted sending offensive material of a racially aggravated nature via a public communications network in court on 7 December. While the court took into consideration Groom’s first offence, the material was condemned as “very inflammatory” and “insulting” and as having “badly affected the victim.”
Groom was sentenced to eight weeks in prison and ordered to pay £500 compensation and a £115 surcharge.
DC Josh Coe, who led the investigation, said: “It was clear Groom had interacted with the victim on Twitter so he would view his profile and see the inflammatory material.
“We take this type of hate crime very seriously and the sentence shows the courts do too. No one should have to put up with this type of offensive material and I would urge other victims to contact police. We will take allegations very seriously and investigate them thoroughly.”