England fan spared jail after sending "disgraceful, racist" email to Southgate

A football fan who sent England manager Gareth Southgate a "disgraceful, unacceptable, racist rant" has escaped a prison sentence.

Brian Martin, 36 and with an address in Selby, emailed Southgate after England's Nations League defeat to Hungary in June, criticising him for selecting black players to take penalties in last year's Euros final and also the team for taking the knee.

During sentencing at York Magistrates' Court this morning, District Judge Adrian Lower said Mr Martin's offences fell "just short" of a custodial sentence. He imposed a two-year community order which included a £120 fine and 200 hours of unpaid work.

Martin was also ordered to pay £620 costs and a £95 surcharge. The court heard that Mr Martin, who said he will appeal the conviction, started his message "Dear Gareth Wokegate".

The email continued: "Not only did you cause England to lose the European Championship final against Italy by playing for a draw from a winning position, and picking penalty takers who were black instead of being competent, you f****** clown, but you still appear blissfully unaware that 99% of English citizens hate Team Snowflake taking the knee in support of the racist, Marxist, fraudulent, rioting, looting and terrorist murderers of BLM (Black Lives Matter).

"All lives matter or no lives matter. And please say a personal thank you from me to the gutless, p***-poor, millionaire comedy clowns pretending to be an England football team who just had their p***-useless, bone-idle, couldn't-give-a-f*** a***s handed to them by one of the worst teams in Europe.

"Stop with the anti-woke racism. I hope the virtue signalling, racist s*** pretending to be Team England get hammered every match. They are utter c**** hated by everyone who despise their anti-white racism and they do not represent me or my country."

The message ended: "Gareth, you are an utter c*** and the s** who dishonour the shirt are not England. F*** off."

Melanie Ibbotson, prosecuting, said that the message sent by Martin, of Charles Street, Selby, was not thought to have been read by Southgate because it was picked up by his personal assistant and sent to FA security, who contacted the police.

Martin was found guilty last month. At the time Adam Featherstone, a senior Crown prosecutor, said: "The content of this message was not only grossly offensive, but racist. Martin now has a criminal record to show for it, which is likely to impact his life and future prospects.

"This result sends a clear message, that racist language in any form will not be tolerated and the CPS will not hesitate to prosecute these offences whenever our legal test is met."

Representing himself in court today (Tuesday), Martin said he would appeal and the email was "an honest opinion, it is a legal opinion."

The unemployed maintenance contractor said: "My human rights have been breached, my civil rights have been breached and my legal rights have been breached." He told the court he had been subjected to "an egregious abuse of my rights from day one."

District Judge Lower said the email was titled "Yet More Anti-White Racism From Team England". He added: "What did follow was a disgraceful, unacceptable, racist rant.

"Racism has no place in our diverse society. The language you used is deeply hurtful to many people, especially people of colour."

The judge added: "It is my public duty to send a strong message that this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated."

He added that he did not think it was appropriate to award compensation to Southgate or anyone else and said: "There's no price I can put on racism."

He told Martin: "You have little or no insight into how offensive you have been. You have shown no remorse for what you have done."