Man who posed with fake shotgun convicted of inciting hatred against Muslims

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A man who posed with a fake shotgun and urged people to “stand up” has been convicted of stirring up religious hatred against Muslims.

Jay Davison talked about “Aryans” and wrote “heil, heil, heil” in a series of Instagram posts and comments.

A photo showed the 38-year-old posing topless holding what appeared to be a large shotgun, with the caption: “F*** Allah”.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that he shared a second photo with the fake weapon in August last year, and wrote a series of racist comments.

“Ever seen a white man cut a head off? No because they’re f***ing scum. Heil, heil, heil, heil, f*** Allah c***,” one read.

“When has an Aryan cut another man’s head off?” said another comment.

The posts were published on a private Instagram account with 394 followers, but the police were alerted after screen shots were posted to a WhatsApp group later the same day.

When Davison was arrested days later, he admitted posting the messages after an evening of drinking but claimed he was not racist and did not intend to incite racial hatred.

He said that the photos were taken at a friend’s house with an ornamental gun but he refused to name the friend.

However, prosecutors said his comments urged people to “stand up” and contained phrases associated with Nazism and white supremacy.

Davison, of Rhiwbina in Cardiff, was found guilty of stirring up racial and religious hatred on Wednesday.

Jenny Hopkins, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “The material Davison posted was clearly threatening, abusive and insulting. His intention can only have been to stir up religious and racial hatred.

“His defence that he regretted his actions and was drunk was rejected by the jury.

“This is a warning to people that posting material online can have damaging consequences for them offline.”

Davison will be sentenced at a later date for one count of publishing material with intent to stir up religious hatred and two counts of publishing material with intent to stir up racial hatred.

He was found not guilty of two further counts of stirring up religious hatred.

The case comes amid heightened concern over the far-right terror threat, which has been incorporated into government assessments for the first time.

Statistics released by the Home Office showed that more than half of a record number of religiously-motivated hate crimes were directed at Muslims in 2017/18.

The number of people referred to the Prevent counter-extremism programme over suspected far-right extremism has rocketed by 36 per cent in the same period.

British security services say Isis-inspired groups and individuals pose the biggest threat to the UK, but five right-wing terror plots have been foiled since March 2017.