Was a man in the U.K. sentenced to 20 months in jail for a Facebook post "that opposes mass immigration"? No, that's not true: Posts on social media saying that omitted that the man was convicted for inciting violence at the time of anti-immigrant riots sweeping the country. He was convicted of "using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour intending thereby to stir up racial hatred," according to court materials.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on November 12, 2024. It said:
20 month prison sentence in the UK for a FB post that opposes mass immigration and raises concern of r@pe gangs.
'This offence is SO serious.' 🤡
This is your country
@Keir_Starmer
you commie filth.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Nov 14 16:35:30 2024 UTC)
The entry included a video of a judge saying:
You went on to say that you did not want your money going to immigrants who, quote, rape our kids and get priority, end quote.
After a cut, the judge continued:
This offense is so serious that an immediate custodial sentence is unavoidable. Would you stand, please? The sentence that I pass has been reduced by 1/3 to reflect your guilty plea. The sentence is one of 20 months imprisonment.
Neither the post nor the edited clip accurately summarized the case of a man identified in court documents and media accounts as Jordan Parlour.
Parlour's original post on Facebook had been deleted at the time of writing. According to sentencing remarks (archived here) published by the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (archived here) on August 9, 2024, Parlour's initial post read, "Every man and their dog should be smashing fuck out Britannia hotel."
The judiciary remarks also noted that "at the time there were 210 occupants many of whom were foreign refugees and asylum seekers" at the hotel in Leeds, a town in West Yorkshire.
Parlour pleaded guilty and was convicted of "using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour intending thereby to stir up racial hatred," according to the Crown Prosecution Service website (archived here).
In a longer recording of the sentencing compared to what was used in the post on X (archived here), the judge emphasized that Parlour called for an attack on the hotel during a series of riots across the U.K. (archived here) that followed a mass stabbing in Southport on July 29, 2024 (archived here).
At the 2:47 mark, the judge said:
In between the two attacks, you took to social media in order to encourage others towards participation in the attacks upon the hotel ... the initial post received six likes. However, it was sent to your 1,500 Facebook friends and because of your lack of privacy settings will have been forwarded to friends of your friends. The messages were, therefore, spread widely, which was plainly your intention.
At the 5:58 mark, he concluded:
You were encouraging others to attack a hotel which you knew was occupied by refugees and asylum seekers. The overall effect of your post was to incite violence towards the building and therefore towards those within the building. It was not only the refugees and asylum seekers who were likely to be affected by your post but also the hotel managers, the night porters and those who worked within the hotel.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims concerning the U.K. can be found here. Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims about immigration are here.
