A British man has been sentenced to pay compensation and observe a curfew at weekends, after pleading guilty to posting online racist abuse about England players on the night of the Euro finals in July.
England's Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were bombarded with online abuse, after they missed spot-kicks in a penalty shootout with Italy, after the game at Wembley finished as a draw.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) says Scott McCluskey, 43, from Runcorn in northwest England, posted racist and insulting comments about the three players on his Facebook account.
McCluskey says he had smoked cannabis and deleted the comments, after other Facebook users objected to them. The racism and fan violence at the final badly marred an otherwise successful tournament for the young national team.
McCluskey was sentenced to 14 weeks' imprisonment, suspended for 18 months to oversee his behavior. He must complete 30 days of rehabilitation and observe an electronically monitored curfew each weekend for 40 weeks.
He must also pay the victims 100 pounds in compensation, costs and a victim surcharge.
"Hate crimes such as these have a massive impact on players and their mental health," says CPS national lead on football Elizabeth Jenkins.
"The CPS takes this kind of offending very seriously and this case shows that where offensive content is reported to the police, we can successfully bring offenders to justice."
Reuters
