The Crown Court
Newcastle upon Tyne
18 November 2024
Before:
Her Honour Judge Scott
Between:
Rex
-v-
James Aspin
Sentencing Remarks
- Mr Aspin. I am sentencing you today in respect of one offence of distributing a recording intending to stir up religious hatred. You entered a guilty plea to that offence on 12 August 2024 at South-East Northumberland Magistrates Court, and were committed to this court for sentence.
- The facts of your offending are as follows. You are a user of the Tik Tok social media platform. On that platform, you have 921 followers, and your posts have received 8039 likes.
- On 8th August of this year, you posted a video on Tik Tok. This caused another user to comment stating, ‘But what about all of the white muslims? Or all of the English born black and Asians who aren’t immigrants? They can’t practice their religion? Do they get painted with the same brush?”.
- You addressed those comments by posting another video, which lasted for 3 mins and 58 seconds. In that video, you stated the words as read out by Ms Anderson, on behalf of the prosecution.
- The wording used by you in that Tik Tok video was hugely offensive and dangerous. You referenced people who practice Islam as being largely responsible for awful crimes committed in this country. You spoke about asylum seekers in a despicable way. You stated that you and others at the planned march in Newcastle would burn down every mosque in Newcastle.
- That video was reported to the police by another user of Tik Tok. It is not clear how many times it was viewed, but it had 14 likes, 18 comments and was saved three times. It was also shared five times by the time the police recorded the footage on the 9th August.
- You were arrested and asked the police whether this was on account of your Tik Tok videos. You said ‘no-one can say anything these days’. In interview, you said that you were simply giving your opinion. You called asylum seekers ‘Muslim Asians’ and said that they should not come to the UK, as it caused problems for the country. You said that you had no intention of damaging mosques but accepted that others would be afraid, frightened and upset by what you had said. You denied being racist, and said that you were intoxicated at the time of the video.
- You are 34 years old. You have 2 convictions for 2 offences, with dissimilar matters of drunk and disorderly recorded against you in 2007 and 2008.
- In determining the appropriate sentence to impose on you, I have had regard to the following:
(a) The offence specific guideline
(b) Overarching guideline
(c) Imposition of community and custodial sentences
(d) Credit for guilty plea
(e) Sentencing offenders with mental disorders, developmental disorders, or neurological impairments. - I have also heard everything said on your behalf by Mr Cornberg, and read the pre-sentence report prepared by Probation, together with the report of Dr Kat and the letters written by you and your mother.
- The offence of distributing a recording intending to stir up religious hatred carries a maximum sentence of 7 years imprisonment.
- I turn first to consider your culpability for this offence. The prosecution position is that your culpability falls within A. Mr Cornberg has, on your behalf, attempted to persuade me that it falls within category C. In my judgement, there was, on your part, an intention to incite serious violence with your words. That is clear by your statement ‘we are going to burn down every fucking Mosque in Newcastle.’ As to harm, that is category 1. It was a statement made by you which directly encouraged activity which threatened or endangered life. I’ve heard what Mr Cornberg said about your statement being reckless. Whilst I accept that your statement was not a direct invitation to others, you did not say ‘come and join me’ for example, it did however encourage such activity. Further, by posting that on Tik Tok, there was widespread dissemination of the statement. It was accessible by all, your account being unrestricted, meaning that posts are visible to all.
- An A1 offence has a starting point of 3 years imprisonment, with a range of 2-6 years. Whilst you have previous convictions, there are of some age, and not relevant to this offending. As such, I do not count them as an aggravating factor. However, your offending is aggravated by the timing of your statement on TikTok. It was at a time when there was widespread violence in this country, there was a particularly sensitive social climate.
- As to mitigating factors, you have a borderline IQ level. You have a diagnosis of ADHD. You experienced some trauma in your childhood. You have experienced depression. You express remorse for your offending. I have taken account of all that was said by Dr Kat, you and your mother.
- Taking those factors into account, I make an upward adjustment to the starting point to reflect the aggravating factor, and a downward adjustment to reflect the mitigating factors. The appropriate sentence for an adult following a contested trial would have been one of 30 months imprisonment.
- I give you credit for your guilty plea. This was entered at the first opportunity in the magistrates’ court. As such, the credit I afford you is one-third. Your offending is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified. The sentence I impose on you is one of 20 months imprisonment. I have considered whether I can suspend your period of imprisonment. In doing so, I have had regard to all of the factors listed in the imposition of community and custodial sentences guideline and everything said on your behalf. I have also had regard to the current prison population levels.
- You have a family – four children. Whilst undoubtedly your imprisonment will have an impact on them, I note that they live with their mother, who cares for them. Whilst Probation have said that you are somebody who they can work with and assessed you as low risk of reoffending, the nature of your offending is such that, in my judgement, appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate custody. The words used by you on your Tik Tok post are not and should not be tolerated. Such words could and do, on some occasions, result in action being taken by others which have a serious impact on the lives of other people.
- Therefore, the sentence of 20 months I have imposed on you is an immediate sentence of imprisonment. You will serve up to one half of that sentence in custody before you are released on licence. When you are released, you will be on licence and then post-sentence supervision for a total of 12 months after that. You must comply with the terms of the licence and supervision and commit no further offence or you will be liable to serve a further period in custody. The days which you have spent on remand in custody will automatically count towards your sentence.