Man jailed for inciting racial hatred after 'odious' anti-immigration posts viewed 33 times
Luke Yarwood, 36, called on Brits to “gang together and start the slaughter” by setting migrant hotels alight.
A man who called for Brits to burn down a migrant hotel and then "head to MPs houses and Parliament" has been jailed for 18 months after the social media posts were viewed 33 times.
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Luke Yarwood, 36, from Burton, near Christchurch, Dorset, made a string of anti-Muslim and anti-immigration posts between December 21 2024 to January 29 2025.
He has been sentenced for inciting racial hatred after he took to X calling for people to go to migrant hotels and “burn them to the ground”.
It came following a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, in which six people were killed in December last year, Bournemouth Crown Court heard.
In another post, he said Brits must “gang together and start the slaughter” by setting migrant hotels alight and then “head to MPs’ houses and Parliament”.
His brother-in-law later reported the posts to the police, the court heard.
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Yarwood’s defence argued few people had viewed the posts and said they were just “impotent rantings of a socially isolated man”.
They claimed there was no evidence of any “real-world consequences”.But the prosecution argued the “extremely unpleasant posts” threatened to spark chaos at one of three migrant hotels in Bournemouth.
Slapping Yarwood with an 18-month sentence, Judge Jonathan Fuller said the “odious” messages intended to incite violence and racial hatred.
The case has been compared to Lucy Connolly’s - the wife of a former Conservative councillor who was also jailed for stirring up racial hatred against asylum seekers online.
The 42-year-old was handed a 31-month sentence in October after she posted on X: "Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the bastards for all I care ... if that makes me racist so be it."
She pleaded guilty to inciting racial hatred by publishing and distributing "threatening or abusive" written material on X and was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court in October last year.
The former childminder from Northampton was released after serving 10 months of her sentence, following the judge's order that she serve at least 40% of it in prison before being eligible for release on licence.