{"id":126921,"date":"2025-05-24T03:17:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T03:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/126921\/"},"modified":"2025-05-24T03:17:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T03:17:13","slug":"midlands-man-hauled-before-courts-over-unacceptable-tweets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/126921\/","title":{"rendered":"Midlands man hauled before courts over &#8216;unacceptable&#8217; Tweets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Police officers found &#8216;machetes, fireworks and material matching the images he\u2019d posted online&#8217; when they raided Richard Britton&#8217;s home<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_Richard-Britton.jpg\" alt=\"Police custody image of Richard Britton, 31, from Wombourne, who is white with shaved brown hair and a beard\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Richard Britton, 31, from Wombourne<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">A Staffordshire man has admitted posting threatening and racist messages on social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Richard Britton, from Wombourne in South <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/all-about\/staffordshire\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Staffordshire<\/a>, used his Twitter account to show &#8216;anti-Islamic, racist and anti-immigration sentiments&#8217; police said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">He also used threatening language and shared images of weapons online and encouraged others to do the same.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Twitter, now known as X, suspended his account.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">Read more: <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/news\/midlands-news\/graphic-whatsapp-chat-islamic-state-31712942\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Graphic WhatsApp chat by Islamic State terror group uncovered<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">He was arrested during a pre-planned operation on 26 April 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">And following a search of his address, weapons &#8211; including machetes, were recovered, which matched those featuring in his social media posts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Initially, the 31-year-old denied two counts of publishing or distributing threatening, abusive or insulting material between February and March 2023.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1748056633_602_0_Richard-Britton.jpg\" alt=\"Police custody image of Richard Britton, 31, from Wombourne, who is white with shaved brown hair and a beard\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>Richard Britton, 31, from Wombourne<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">But he then pleaded guilty at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Wednesday (May 21). Britton will be sentenced on Friday, July 25.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Detective Superintendent Annie Miller, from Counter Terrorism Policing in the West Midlands who investigated, said: \u201cWhen we searched Britton\u2019s address following his arrest, we found machetes, fireworks and material matching the images he\u2019d posted online.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cOur absolute priority is to ensure the safety and security of the people who live, work and visit the wider West Midlands area.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \"><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/newsletter-preference-centre\/?view=Solus&amp;mailingListId=67ec6fc9-65d2-4b0c-b55e-ee73660ce693&amp;utm_source=solusarticle\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"[object Object]Link opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">Get the latest BirminghamLive news direct to your inbox<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \"><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/all-about\/staffordshire-police\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Staffordshire Police<\/a> urged the public to come forward if they \u2018see or hear something that doesn\u2019t seem right, trust your instincts and ACT by reporting to police in confidence at gov.uk\/ACT\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">A spokeswoman said: \u201cEvery year thousands of reports from the public help police tackle the terrorist threat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cReporting won\u2019t ruin lives, but it could save them. Action Counters Terrorism. Remember, in an emergency, always dial 999.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police officers found &#8216;machetes, fireworks and material matching the images he\u2019d posted online&#8217; when they raided Richard Britton&#8217;s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,604,31076,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-126921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-staffordshire","13":"tag-staffordshire-police","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114560646726507894","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}