Leeds Man Jailed For Inciting Violence On Facebook

A man from the Leeds suburb of Seacroft has been jailed for 20 months for encouraging people on social media to attack a local hotel that housed migrants.

Jordan Parlour, 28, is the first person to face prosecution for posting allegedly criminal messages on social media that were linked to days of violence across the UK targeting migrants.

Parlour was told he must serve half his sentence in custody.

Parlour made Facebook posts on the morning of Sunday, 4 August with the intention of fanning tensions at a time when anti-immigration demonstrations were taking place across the nation, Leeds Crown Court heard on Friday.

Inciting violence

He had pleaded guilty on Tuesday at Leeds Magistrates’ Court to using threatening, abusive or insulting words in his posts.

Leeds Crown Court heard that Parlour wrote a Facebook status on Sunday morning saying “every man and his dog” should target the Britannia Hotel in Seacroft, which at the time was housing 210 migrants.

He also claimed in a Facebook comment that migrants were given “the Life of Riley off the tax us hard-working people earn when it could be put to better use”.

Over the weekend staff at the hotel had reported damage to the windows of rooms where some guests were staying.

The hotel had been locked down on Saturday to protect guests, prosecutor Matthew Donkin said.

In the meantime, other hotels in Rotherham and Tamworth that were believed to be housing migrants were targeted on Sunday, with rioters damaging structures and setting fires.

Police deployed

As a result, after staff became aware of Parlour’s posts on Sunday evening, West Yorkshire police deployed five units to the premises with a total of 18 officers and one inspector coming to the scene.

Reassurance patrols were conducted through the night and the following day.

Parlour was arrested early on Monday and admitted to the offence in an interview with police, the court was told.

He “recognised how stupid he had been writing comments and said he could understand that might have incited further violence”, Donkin said, according to a BBC report.

The status message went out to Parlour’s 1,500 Facebook friends and could have been shared more widely due to his limited privacy settings.

Parlour’s attorney Nicholas Hammond said his client had no intention of taking part in violence as he had a broken foot, and had no political affiliations.

‘Stupid and irresponsible’

“They were his own stupid and irresponsible posts,” Hammond said.

A character reference by Parlour’s mother said he was “caught up and swept away by emotions circulating throughout the country”.

The Recorder of Leeds, His Honour Judge Guy Kearl, told Parlour: “You were encouraging others to attack a hotel which you know was occupied by refugees and asylum seekers.”

He added that the offence was aggravated by “the timing of your posts, at a time of social unrest and particular sensitivity across the country” and that because of this a custodial sentence was “unavoidable”.