A 60-year-old man has avoided jail after admitting to sending racist and misogynist messages about England footballer Jess Carter on TikTok during last summer's European Championship. Nigel Dewale, from Great Harwood, Lancashire, was handed a six-week suspended prison sentence at Blackburn Magistrates' Court, along with a four-year football banning order and a 10-day rehabilitation requirement.
District Judge Tony Watkin stated he had come 'very close indeed' to sending Dewale to prison but considered the impact on his 20-year-old daughter, who has epilepsy, and the defendant's 'realistic prospect of rehabilitation'. Dewale claimed he had been 'in drink' when he posted the messages.
Judge Watkin told Dewale: 'You targeted her for no other reason than she was a prominent, female footballer. It caused substantial distress and fear to your victim. There is a view held by some that offences of this nature are somehow less serious because they are committed behind a screen. The very opposite is true.'
Mike Ankers, deputy director of the UK Football Policing Unit, welcomed the verdict, calling it 'hugely significant' and a clear message that courts are taking online hate speech seriously. He praised Carter and the Lionesses for standing up to abuse, adding: 'It gives her some peace that it was the right thing to do and hopefully gives other players confidence that you can stand up and something's going to be done about it.'
Ankers also highlighted underreporting of online abuse and called for mandatory sharing of identifying information by social media companies, as well as treating VPN use as an aggravating factor in sentencing. He noted the case took 10 months, during which Carter had to answer questions about abuse rather than her football career.
