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Lincoln 'keyboard warrior' who stirred up racial hatred during protests jailed [View all]
Wayne O'Rourke was paid £1,400 a month for his account on X
A Lincoln man who admitted publishing written material online to stir up racial hatred during the recent protests has been jailed for three years. Wayne O’Rourke, who had over 90,000 followers on his X account, expressed support for the recent protests and offered advice to protesters on how to remain anonymous.
Among the 35-year-old's posts on 29 July was a reference to the death of three children in Southport alleging it was a terrorist attack carried out by a Muslim. A further post read: "People of Southport where are you, get out on the street."
That post had 1.7 million views, the court was told. Other posts showed a picture of the County Road mosque in Liverpool and a picture of a burning car in Sunderland. This was accompanied by a post which read: "Sunderland, go on lads"
...
O'Rourke of Salix Approach, Lincoln, admitted publishing written material online to stir up racial hatred between 28 July and 8 August. The court heard O'Rourke had no previous convictions but was cautioned for fraud in 2018.
https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/lincoln-news/lincoln-keyboard-warrior-who-stirred-9489922
A Lincoln man who admitted publishing written material online to stir up racial hatred during the recent protests has been jailed for three years. Wayne O’Rourke, who had over 90,000 followers on his X account, expressed support for the recent protests and offered advice to protesters on how to remain anonymous.
Among the 35-year-old's posts on 29 July was a reference to the death of three children in Southport alleging it was a terrorist attack carried out by a Muslim. A further post read: "People of Southport where are you, get out on the street."
That post had 1.7 million views, the court was told. Other posts showed a picture of the County Road mosque in Liverpool and a picture of a burning car in Sunderland. This was accompanied by a post which read: "Sunderland, go on lads"
...
O'Rourke of Salix Approach, Lincoln, admitted publishing written material online to stir up racial hatred between 28 July and 8 August. The court heard O'Rourke had no previous convictions but was cautioned for fraud in 2018.
https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/lincoln-news/lincoln-keyboard-warrior-who-stirred-9489922
If he wasn't declaring that £1400 a month for tax or social security purposes, jail may be just the beginning of his worries.
It seems I must have blocked this heinous specimen on Twitter ages ago. Others who didn't have catalogued some of his posts, which included targeted online harassment of a number of women over an extended period, though that didn't figure in the charges against him.
Apparently he ran two Twitter accounts, both of which are still technically active but dormant at time of writing, and both of which I found I had blocked:
On May 30, he posted on his WayneGb888 account, which is evidently his less active backup:
Don’t ask me how but I’ve some how got my main account back.
Maybe he's less overjoyed about that now. O'Rourke tweeted a week ago:
Police: Certainly, with pleasure. Happy Sunday.
Maybe this tweet of O'Rourke's is less funny to him now, or maybe now even funny to the rest of us after all:
Link to tweet
Sick of It 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇺🇸🇺🇸
@WayneGB888
My Uber driver asks a lot of questions, and to be honest, he’s got a bit of a bad attitude
@WayneGB888
My Uber driver asks a lot of questions, and to be honest, he’s got a bit of a bad attitude
The case has sent a ripple of self-centred concern and entirely predictable ranting about "Communism" and "two-tier justice" and worse though the ranks of rightwing trolls on Twitter. One claimed to have identified the woman on Twitter who "grassed" on O'Rourke, though with 100,000 followers and thousands of tweets to his name, at least one of which got 1.7 million views, his activities were hardly a secret.
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