Man who racially abused Rio Ferdinand on Twitter after England's Euro 2020 final loss is sentenced

Man who racially abused Rio Ferdinand on Twitter after England’s Euro 2020 final loss is sentenced

Mar 01, 2022

A football fan who racially abused Rio Ferdinand after England lost to Italy in the Euro 2020 final has been handed a suspended sentence.

The football pundit and former England defender found the tweets “grossly offensive” and having to explain them to his children “deeply upsetting”, a court heard.

Robert Whippe, 64, admitted directing two tweets featuring monkey and banana emojis at the ex-Manchester United star over his commentary on the championship, St Albans Magistrates’ Court heard.

He previously pleaded guilty to two counts of sending a grossly offensive message and was sentenced on Tuesday.

The court heard how the tweets were sent on the morning of July 8, following England’s match against Denmark, and on July 11, after England lost to Italy in a penalty shootout.

‘In interview you said it was a joke, you didn’t realise it was racist – nonsense’

Deputy Senior District Judge Tan Ikram told Whippe: “Everyone is entitled to disagree and respectfully disagree with the views of those who are put in those positions.

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“But what you did was not only disagreed but you used racist language, racist language through those symbols and emojis.

“In interview you said it was a joke, you didn’t realise it was racist – nonsense. Of course you realised it was racist. Those two symbols are often used by those who want to express racist views towards black people and that’s what you did.”

He added: “There can be no doubt that anyone who uses symbols such as monkeys and bananas has only one intention and motive behind their actions and that is to ridicule, mock and belittle through those racist symbols.”

‘Hate crime has no place within society let alone sport’

Whippe was also ordered to pay £120 in “symbolic” compensation to Mr Ferdinand as well as £85 in costs and a £128 victim surcharge and to carry out 160 hours of unpaid work and 20 days of rehabilitation activities.

His tweets were traced by police using automatic software designed to trawl social media for possible abuse, the judge was told.

Deputy chief Crown prosecutor Douglas Mackay of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Hate crime has no place within society let alone sport.

“Recently we have seen an increase of reports in racist abuse online and in stadiums in football matches and we are determined to play our part in cutting this out.”

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