Sean Dowd (15/02/1963), of Edgar Street, Ramsbottom, was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court to 27 months in prison.
He previously pleaded guilty to:
- Ten counts of publishing / distributing written material, which was threatening, abusive or insulting, intending thereby to stir up racial hatred contrary to Section 19(1) of the Public Order Act 1986.
- Three counts of publishing / distributing written material which was threatening, intending to stir up religious hatred contrary to Section 29(C) of the Public Order Act 1986.
Dowd was arrested by CTPNW officers in March 2023 after he was identified as the man behind a social media account which had shared scores of antisemitic, racist, and xenophobic posts.
A number of these posts encouraged violence against various communities and praised those who had previously carried out terrorist attacks.
Sean Dowd
At the time of his arrest, Dowd’s account had 200 followers, and his bio stated, “smiling and sharpening my knife.”
Speaking after the sentencing, Head of CTPNW Investigations, Detective Superintendent Andy Meeks said:
“Over several months, Sean Dowd repeatedly shared offensive posts online which encouraged violence and anger towards minority communities. Unfortunately, we know all too well just how serious an impact the online activity of hateful individuals can have so I welcome the custodial sentence imposed by the judge today.
This is another case which highlights the potential dangers of negative online activity so I would like to take this opportunity to continue to urge anybody who comes across hateful, violent, or extremist content to please report it to the police urgently so that action can be taken.”
Glad to see the two tier policing where violent criminals go free and peaceful protestors get treated as terrorists seems to be ending.
Its a lot easier (and more comfortable) to catch someone for saying naughty words online than to catch burglars.
We’re gonna need a bigger prison…..
Just came on because I thought we were going to bury someone alive…
Just wanted to let you know that this joke has not gone unappreciated! Took me a few seconds though!
lol
You win comment of the day!
Thank you. Amazing what a lack of punctuation does to a sentence.
Mohamed Starmer seal of approval, soon Will be more freedom of speech in Saudí Arabia than in the U K. , thanks Sir Mohamed.
Just so we are clear I believe Keir Starmer says he is an atheist, though he takes his lead in family life from his wife who is Jewish. Like many others Mr Dowd is learning that you can no longer hide behind your keyboard and incite people to commit violence. Pity he didn’t know my grandmother whose advice was ‘ if you can’t say anything nice its better to say nothing at all’. 😉