A FIFTY-one-year-old Egremont man has become the latest person in the county to be jailed for posting racially aggravated online social media posts linked to national civil unrest.

Sellafield worker Lee Joseph Dunn, of Church Street, appeared at Carlisle Magistrates’ Court this afternoon (Monday).

Dunn pleaded guilty to one offence. He admitted sending, by means of a public electronic communications network, a message that was grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character.

His crime occurred on July 30 and 31 and involved three shared Facebook posts.

Prosecutor George Shelley said Dunn had posted three separate images. The first one showed a group of men, Asian in appearance, at Egremont crab fair 2025, with the caption: “Coming to a town near you.”

The second also showed a group of men, Asian in appearance leaving a boat on to Whitehaven beach. This, said Mr Shelley, had the caption: “When it’s on your turf, then what?”

A final image showed a group of men, again Asian in appearance, wielding knives in front of the Palace of Westminster. There was also a crying white child in a Union flag T-shirt. This was also captioned, said Mr Shelley, with the wording: “Coming to a town near you.”

Cumbria Police had confirmed before the hearing that Dunn had been charged with posting offensive and racially aggravated content online.

Dunn was said by his lawyer, Andrew Gurney, to have apologised for his online actions. He had removed the offensive content he posted, and was given credit for this by the district judge, a John Temperley.

Dunn was handed an immediate eight-week jail term — discounted by a third from 12 weeks in view of his guilty plea — by district judge John Temperley.

Last week the same judge had given 31-year-old Billy Thompson, of Victory Crescent, Maryport, an immediate 12-week sentence. Thompson had written a racially aggravated Facebook post which contained emojis both of an ethnic minority person and a gun.

Sentencing Thompson, Judge Temperley had said of the zero tolerance approach being taken by courts:

“This offence, I’m afraid, has to be viewed in the context of the current civil unrest up and down this country. And I’ve no doubt at all that your post is connected to that wider picture.

“I don’t accept that your comments and the emojis that you posted were directed at the police. I’ve read in the case summary of the comments you made on arrest which clearly demonstrate to me that there was a racial element to the messaging and the posting of these emojis.

“That has to be reflected in the sentence as does there need to be a deterrent element in the sentence that I impose, because this sort of behaviour has to stop.

“It encourages others to behave in a similar way and ultimately it leads to the sorts of problems on the streets that we’ve been seeing in so many places up and down this country. This offence is serious enough for custody.”

News and Star