Man jailed for calling St Kitts and Nevis based footballer "Baboon" in UK

A man from the United Kingdom has been jailed for racially abusing St Kitts and Nevis based footballer Romaine Sawyers. The British white man had racially abused midfielder on social media.

Birmingham Magistrates' Court on Friday heard the plea and said that Simon Silwood's message was deliberately racist and not the outcome of autocorrect to "baboon" from "bafoon" as he had maintained

The 29-year-old footballer stated that he got the racial post after the after English club West Bromwich Albion, which is the club he had played, lost to Manchester City by 5-0 in January.

The court also ordered a 50-year-old man named Simon Silwood's of Kingswinford, West Midlands, to pay £500 in compensation to the player. District judge Briony Clarke in the statement said that there is no place for racism abuse on cyber platforms.

The accused man is a supporter Randall Close; he was arrested after an investigation was conducted by PC Stuart Ward, the UK's first hate crime officer within a football unit.

PC Stuart Ward stated that there has been an increase in online hate crime from the past year. He said he wouldn't hesitate in taking action against people who spread hate on online platforms.

Silwood had blamed the auto-correction for the comment. However, the court rejected his claims on 9 September 2021, and he was found guilty under the Malicious Communications Act