Man jailed for posting 'kill every Muslim' on Facebook following Manchester bombing

A man who wrote in a Facebook post "let's kill every Muslim" in the wake of the Manchester terror attack has been jailed for a year.

Keegan Jakovlevs, of Wrexham in North Wales, was jailed at Mold Crown Court after previously pleading guilty to publishing material with the intention of stirring up religious hatred.

The 22-year-old posted his message shortly after the bombing at Manchester Arena on 22 May when suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated a home-made bomb as Ariana Grande's show concluded.

The explosion killed Abedi and 22 others, including an eight-year-old girl and several parents waiting for their children.

In the wake of the attack, Jakovlevs took to Facebook to write: "Thoughts with all the families in the horrible Manchester bombing (hands together in prayer symbol) but no let's not stop letting them in the country let's kill every... Muslim ... we see.. bet they would still send us down."

The post was taken down shortly afterwards, but the message was accessible to his 2,154 Facebook friends and to other members of the public.

Sue Hemming, head of the special crime and counter-terrorism division in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said no harmful action was traced to the post yet the "intention was clear".

She said: "After the Manchester attack there were countless messages of support on social media for those affected but Keegan Jakovlevs chose to stir up religious hatred by calling for British Muslims to be indiscriminately killed.

"People should not assume they can hide on social media when stirring up hatred and violence. Where there is evidence the CPS will prosecute them and they will face imprisonment as a result."

The CPS said the Facebook post was particularly serious as "public emotions were running high".

"Overall, there was potential for it to have been seen by a very large number of people and for serious harm to have occurred in addition to the obvious fear and distress suffered by any member of the Muslim community who may have seen it," the CPS added.

In February Dale Minikin, from Jersey, received a £1,000 fine at Jersey's Magistrate's Court after he wrote on Facebook that the way to solve the increasing number of refugees was to "shoot them."