A MAN who launched an anti-Muslim rant on Twitter has been fined £450 after he admitted the offences in court.
Robert Rankin, 52, claimed he had written some of the remarks in response to BBC reports which he thought sided with Muslims, Paisley Sheriff Court was told.
An offensive post on Twitter followed early TV coverage of the Glasgow bin lorry crash which, he maintained, had “not ruled out the possibility of terrorist involvement”.
The court was told Rankin was reported to police and traced via his Facebook page to his home in Paisley’s Orchard Street, after complaints were made in January last year. In court, he admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner on two occasions likely to cause fear and alarm by posting offensive comments about the Muslim faith.
Depute fiscal Frank Clarke described the accused as “a 90-minute bigot”.
Defence agent Bob Kerr said: “He didn’t think his comments would go any further than be seen by those who were following him on Twitter.”
Sheriff Simon Fraser told Rankin: “This is pretty unpleasant stuff and if you repeat this, you are going to find yourself going to prison.”
Rankin was fined £450 to be paid at £10 per week.
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