A Chelsea Football Club supporter who sent antisemitic tweets to a Jewish journalist has been given a lifetime ban by the club.
Kerry Hardwell, 35 from Bognor, was found to have targeted fellow Chelsea supporter Dan Levene with abusive tweets.
Mr Hardwell pleaded guilty at Worthing Magistrates’ Court to three charges of sending communications with offensive messages and one charge of sending an offensive message by a public communication network.
The tweets were sent during a ten-year span from 2012 to 2022.
Mr Hardwell was handed a three-year Football Banning Order by the court, which restricts his access to attending professional football matches in England. However, the Club has confirmed that he has received a lifetime ban from attending Chelsea games.
He was also ordered to undertake 200 hours of unpaid work, which was uplifted from 120 hours owing to the religiously/racially aggravated nature of the crime.
According to Mr Levene, an investigation revealed that Mr Hardwell had published over 50 antisemitic Twitter posts, which included referring to Jews as ‘vermin’ and ‘parasites’. In one tweet, he allegedly called businessman and television personality Alan Sugar a “Yid cunt”.
In his witness statement read out to the court, Mr Levene said: “The ‘Y-word’ is three letters that are often thrown away by people who may claim they don’t fully appreciate their collective meaning; with some football fans among that number.
“But everyone, most notably the defendant here, should be aware that it is a racially offensive word – and its use in a pejorative sense, as in this case, is a hate crime. This word, and variants of it, have been used throughout history by extremists to demonise and persecute a minority. My minority. This history is relevant, because it explains the pernicious nature of the word’s usage today.”
A spokesperson for Chelsea Football Club said: “Chelsea FC condemns antisemitic abuse and hate speech in all its forms and we have no tolerance for it at our club. As soon as Sussex Police made us aware, Mr Hardwell was suspended pending the outcome of criminal proceedings.
“Subsequent to Mr Hardwell’s conviction, we can confirm that he has been issued with a lifetime ban from Chelsea FC. We commend Dan Levene for coming forward. Nobody should have to be subject to the type of disgusting abuse he has had to endure.”
Sussex Police’s Dedicated Football Officer PC Darren Balkham said: “The vitriol in the messages were sent in the belief that because the person was behind a keyboard, they wouldn’t be identified. The defendant was wrong, and Harding will now have learned this lesson. There is no place for antisemitic and racist abuse, either in football or in society.”
Douglas Mackay of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “These antisemitic tweets were extremely upsetting and deeply offensive not only to the victim, but also to all those within and outside the Jewish community. Hatred of any kind has no place in society. Wherever there is sufficient evidence and in the public interest, the CPS will not hesitate to prosecute those who engage in such abhorrent and reprehensible behaviour.”
