Blogger is sentenced for racist website postings

Published on Tuesday 17 July 2007 01:10

A SUPERMARKET worker who "blogged to shock" on his website by lampooning black people, Muslims, the Irish, homosexuals and the disabled has been sentenced to carry out 160 hours of community service.

A court heard that Andrew Love, an economics graduate, poked fun at the Falklands war veteran Simon Weston, who suffered severe burns, and featured a film clip of a disabled colleague playing a mouth organ, which he captioned "the company gimp".

Love, a shelf-stacker at Morrisons supermarket in Falkirk, invited colleagues to log on to the website, www.sirdavisiv.com, which he set up in 2005.

Alistair McSporran, prosecuting, told Falkirk Sheriff court that the website's content acquired a darker tone after initially being filled with "amusing or supposedly amusing stories".

He said: "The site had started to take on undertones of racism and homophobia and contained derogatory remarks about disabled and unfortunate members of society."

When the supermarket's admin manager, Mark Kerr, told Love to take down the clip of a disabled member of staff playing the harmonica, the employee responded by setting up an e-mail address for Mr Kerr and also published the manager's e-mail address and home postcode.

Love, suspended by Morrisons, resigned a few days later and the police were called in.

Love, of Maddiston, Falkirk, pleaded guilty to committing a racially aggravated breach of the peace.

Defence advocate David McLeod said Love, currently working for another supermarket, had hoped to become involved in journalism.