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Drunk passenger fined over Christchurch shootings rant

Author
Kurt Bayer, NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Mon, 28 Oct 2019, 11:19AM
The Al Noor mosque was one of the sites of the March 15 shootings. (Photo / AP)
The Al Noor mosque was one of the sites of the March 15 shootings. (Photo / AP)

Drunk passenger fined over Christchurch shootings rant

Author
Kurt Bayer, NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Mon, 28 Oct 2019, 11:19AM

A drunk London train passenger who spouted anti-Muslim abuse and offensive comments about the Christchurch mosque shooting victims just days after the attack has been convicted.

Dean Dyer, a 38-year-old construction worker, was on board a London Overground train between West Croydon and Canada Water on March 19 this year when he stunned passengers with his outburst.

His ravings, where he revealed hatred for Muslims and showed no sympathy for the 50 victims of the March 15 terror attack, was filmed and posted on YouTube by an unnamed user.

It was later sent to a Mail Online journalist who reported it to British Transport Police.

When Dyer was eventually tracked down, he accepted that the comments he made were religiously offensive but claimed he could not remember the incident. He went on to say that he would not have said those things if he had not been drunk.

Dyer pleaded guilty to religiously aggravated harassment at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday.

He was fined £400 ($806). It would have been £200 but the court doubled the fine after an application by the Crown Prosecution Service who argued that the offence was motivated by and showed hostility towards members of a religion.

"Dean Dyer denied being a bigot but his actions have proven otherwise. Today, he has admitted his guilt and will now pay for price for his actions," said Emma Lineton of the West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service.

"Anti-Muslim abuse is a serious issue and has no place in society. We will not tolerate it in any way, shape or form."

His conviction comes on the same day that the CPS published its annual hate crime report, which showed that 605 cases were prosecuted as faith-based hate crimes in England and Wales in the 12 months to March this year. Of those, 507 ended in a conviction and 76 per cent of those received a sentence uplift to reflect the true nature of the hate crime.

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