Sentence deferred on Wombourne man who 'advocated extreme violence against Muslims and asylum seekers.'
The sentence of a Wombourne man who has admitted distributing racist and religious material on social media has been adjourned
Richard Britton, aged 31, of The Longlands, Wombourne was due to be sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Thursday after earlier admitting two counts - one of publishing or distributing material intended to stir up racial hatred and one of publishing or distributing material intending to stir up religious hatred.
The court heard he posted messages on his Twitter account between February 14 2023 and March 23 2023 advocating extreme violence against Muslims and asylum seekers.
Glyn Samuel, prosecuting, said the account displayed eight union flags and had 600 people following it and was 'extremely right wing' in nature.
He said: "Amongst the messages on there were ones which encouraged people to burn their houses and smash their cars.
"He frequently referred to Muslims as invaders and encouraged people to attack them and 'take our country back'.
"When he came across an asylum seeker in Kidderminster he posted it publicly, saying 'might be time to go hunting with my hammer'.
" He also shared images of weapons online and encouraged others to do the same." The account was later suspended by X (formerly Twitter).
Britton was arrested during a pre-planned operation by Staffordshire Police on April 26, 2023, and following a search of his address, weapons were discovered that matched those featured on his social media posts including an imitation shotgun, an air rifle and an air pistol as well as a zombie knife.
Britton initially denied the offences but entered guilty pleas at Wolverhampton Crown Court in May last year,
Judge Jonathan Gosling suspended sentencing until February 23 because he had a number of lengthy reports to read on the case and was in the middle of an attempted murder trial so could not give it the time necessary.
