Newcastle Student Denies Racist Tweets To Stan Collymore

14 February 2012, 11:15 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

A Newcastle University law student has denied that he racially abused ex-footballer Stan Collymore on Twitter.

21 year old Joshua Cryer, who's from Lancashire originally but now lives in Jesmond, faced a public order charge following a complaint from the football pundit.

Cryer appeared before city magistrates to deny sending messages that were ``grossly offensive''.

The case will be heard on April 2nd and is expected to last two hours. The defence called for one specific witness, unnamed in court, to attend on that day.

Cryer was arrested last month after the former England striker reported the alleged online abuse to Staffordshire Police and they passed the matter to their Northumbria Police counterparts.

Collymore, originally from Cannock, Staffordshire, played for a string of top clubs, including Liverpool, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest.

He works as a broadcaster for talkSport, campaigns against racism and is a supporter of the Depression Alliance