Man jailed after ‘pretending to be white’ to stir up hatred during UK riots | UK | News


An Asian man who admitted to stirring up racial hatred against Muslims after posing as a “white” far-Right hooligan online during the UK riots has been dealt a huge jail sentence.

Ehsan Hussain, from Yardley in Birmingham, used a fake identity called “Chris Nolan” to call for disorder in Birmingham as riots spread across Britain in the aftermath of the horrific stabbings at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport.

The chef posted numerous messages on Telegram in a group chat with more than 12,000 members just hours before violence erupted in the city.

A court heard he called for disorder in the Alum Rock and Bordesely Green areas and incited racial violence by urging people: “Birmingham first! We need to take back whats ours.”

The 25-year-old previously admitted distributing threatening and abusive material intended to stir up racial hatred.

He was jailed for two years and four months at Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday.

Sentencing, Judge Melbourne Inman KC said: “Sadly this is one of a number of cases that the courts have had to deal with arising from the civil unrest following the very tragic events of Southport that occurred on July 29.

“A number of people used that tragedy as an opportunity to sow hatred which lead to towns and cities up and down the country to be disfigured by racist violence, intimidation and damage.”

He said Hussain had used a chat group which was “populated by those who held extreme right wing and racist views whose purpose was to encourage hatred.”

The judge added during his posts he had used “vile racist language” and it was at a time when people were using “copy cat excuses for violence.”

Peter Grieves-Smith KC, prosecuting, said: “On August 5 this year police became aware of a series of screen shots obtained from a Telegram chat group that was called Southport Wake Up.

“The purpose of the chat site was to try and incite organised violence in the West Midlands area, focusing on the Alum Rock area of Birmingham.”

He said there was also focus on the Bordesley Green area and that was because they both had a high Muslim population.

Mr Grieves-Smith said the chat group used by Hussain had 12,500 members and there had been about 4,600 people online at the time, which he would have been aware of.

At one point during the messaging, in which he referred to “smelly scum bags”, Hussain said: “It is all about the kids. We are doing it for the kids.”

Mr Grieves-Smith said “This is the defendant with others stirring the pot.”

The prosecutor said on August 5 there was widespread disorder in the Bordesley Green area of Birmingham.

There was a gathering of males outside an Islamic centre with some people wearing balaclavas and surgical masks.

Some of the mob moved on to Heartlands Hospital where disruption was caused, doctor’s surgeries had to be closed and there was also severe traffic disruption.

At one point a bus was stormed with a group running up the stairs and at 8pm there was an unprovoked attack on a Skoda which had its windows broken.

Mr Grieves-Smith said: “The consequences, the prosecution say, of all this sort of dialogue that was intended to stir up trouble and intended to stir up violence.

“There was also an attack on a male outside a pub and then upon the pub itself.

“This violent disorder happened within hours of this defendant posting these messages.”

Rag Chand, defending, said “This was, on any view, a colossal collapse of common sense and reason by this defendant. He is desperately remorseful.

“His actions demonstrated an immaturity below his actual age.

“The messages were limited to a finite period, a short period. It could not be described as particularly sophisticated.

“He used his own mobile phone which was registered to him and he made n o attempts to dispose of it or conceal it.

“The offending was quite out of character.”

Chief Superintendent Richard North, from West Midlands Police, said afterwards: “This has been an excellent but complex investigation.

“We would like to thank members of the public for alerting us to these posts which was crucial at a time when we were seeing lots of rumour, speculation and misinformation online; we know this can be extremely harmful to all of our communities.

“We do not tolerate violence in our towns and cities, or tolerate those who use social media to encourage such violence.”

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