Jail for man who encouraged hotel arson attack

John England

A man who encouraged his Facebook followers to burn down a hotel housing refugees has been jailed.

John England, aged 45, made the comments on August 7 after nationwide riots sparked by the killing of three girls in Southport, Merseyside.

England shared an image of people setting fire to a hotel accommodating refugees, saying he was “so proud of these great English men” and that the same “needs to happen” at a hotel in Mansfield.

His Facebook account also  included offensive posts about the Grenfell Tower disaster, Islam and George Floyd, a black man murdered by a US police officer in 2020.

In another post made during the recent unrest, he implied he would shoot a group of Asian men with a machine gun.

He was reported to Nottinghamshire Police by a member of the public who’d seen the post about the hotel.

England was arrested on Sunday morning when he handed himself into Mansfield Police Station.

During a subsequent police interview, he described himself as “an idiot online” and said he had a “dark sense humour.”

He didn’t, he claimed, believe anyone “would be stupid enough” to act on his post.

Appearing at Nottingham Crown Court today, England, of Big Barn Lane, Mansfield, pleaded guilty to using threatening, abusive or insulting words with the intent to stir up racial hatred.

He was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

Detective Chief Inspector Nick Hall, of Nottinghamshire Police, said:

“England’s remarks were not a dark attempt at humour, nor were they a one-off aberration.

“Instead, they were part of a wider series of vile and inflammatory posts in a public forum.

“At a time when many people in our communities were experiencing fear and anxiety, he directly challenged other members of the public to set fire to a building with people inside.

“I am pleased he has been dealt with so quickly by the courts and hope this incident serves as an example to others that what they post online can have very serious consequences for them.”