Kingstanding Man Jailed For Islamophobic Tweets

26 June 2018, 07:10 | Updated: 26 June 2018, 07:16

The tweets were sent a few days after the Manchester Arena attack

Rhodenne Chand, from Finchley Road in Kingstanding, posted 32 tweets in May last year, with some encouraging violence against Muslims and for mosques to be attacked. In one of the tweets, Chand claimed he wanted to “slit a Muslim’s throat".

A member of the public reported the twitter rant to police, worried that the 31-year-old might carry through on his threats.

Chand was arrested on 17th June last year, admitted issuing the messages and said he felt disgusted at himself for writing the posts.

He told officers he was “venting" in the aftermath of the Manchester and London Borough Market terror attacks and had stopped using Twitter.

But a specialist prosecutor assessed the case and determined the posts showed intent to stir up racial and religious hatred and that such “violent rhetoric can cause considerable harm once it is in the public domain".

West Midlands Police Superintendent Mat Shaer is working closely with Tell Mama and the Association of Muslim Police to ensure the force’s approach to hate crime continues to improve:

“This case saw the sustained release of offensive, threatening material aimed at Muslim and Pakistani communities − it left people fearing some of the threats could be carried out by him or his twitter followers.

“The law is careful to try and not penalise expression of opinion, even in strong and possibly offensive terms. But Chand’s tweets were a much baser expression of animosity towards a section of society and were totally unacceptable.

“We take hate crime very seriously and anyone found to be stirring up hatred on the grounds of race, religion, sexuality, or disability could find themselves in court and facing a criminal conviction.

“Court outcomes like this are important in order to reassure communities of our willingness to make progress in the way we tackle hate crime matches how proud we are to police such a diverse region."