A RANGERS fan who posted a comment on Facebook urging people to "send mair bombs and bullets" to Celtic manager Neil Lennon has been warned by a sheriff that he faces jail.
William Kilpatrick, 22, from Bannockburn, put the incitement to violence on the social networking site using his mobile, as he left the branch of Morrisons where he worked.
The post was made on the day of an Old Firm game in 2011 shortly after bombs and bullets had been sent to both Mr Lennon and Celtic supporter Paul McBride QC, who died last year.
It was reported to police by a supermarket colleague.
Dev Kapadia, prosecuting, said: "It was a misguided and reckless comment."
Kilpatrick claimed it was "just banter".
But after a trial at Stirling Sheriff Court lasting a day and a half, a jury of 10 men and five women found him guilty, by majority verdict, of causing a breach of the peace by posting a Facebook message that was of an offensive and threatening nature.
Sheriff Wyllie Robertson deferred sentence until October 23 for criminal justice background reports.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article