Man gets suspended sentence for racially abusing England 3

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This article was published 06/10/2021 (1794 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FOLKESTONE, England (AP) — A man who posted a video on Facebook in which he racially abused England soccer players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka following the European Championship final was handed a suspended prison sentence on Wednesday.

Bradford Pretty, 50, appeared at a court in Folkestone, southern England, and admitted to sending a message that was grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character.

His drunken tirade contained two racist terms to describe the three players, who are all Black. They missed penalties in a shootout that England lost to Italy at Wembley Stadium on July 11.

Pretty was sentenced to 50 days in prison, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.

Richard Graham, defending Pretty, said the content of the video uploaded by his client was “abhorrent” and called it a “moment of drunken madness”.

Pretty had drank “15 or 16″ cans of lager on the day of the final and was “clearly heavily intoxicated” in the video, Graham said.

Last week, a supporter of English club West Bromwich Albion was handed a jail sentence of eight weeks for racially abusing one of his own team’s players on Facebook.

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