Jailing of t-shirt man condemned

The jailing of a man for wearing a T-shirt daubed with offensive comments referring to the murders of PC Fiona Bone and PC Nicola Hughes has been condemned by Chris Davies MEP.

Barry Thew, of Radcliffe, Greater Manchester admitted to a Section 4A Public Order Offence for wearing the T-shirt, on which he had written the messages ”One less pig; perfect justice” and “killacopforfun.com haha”.

He was sentenced to 4 months imprisonment at Minshull Street Court, Manchester.

But North West MEP Chris Davies described his arrest and jailing as an attack on free expression that weakened Britain’s moral authority in the world.

He said: “How do we condemn Russia for imprisoning members of the ‘Pussy Riot’ group for offensive acts if we do the same here?

“If someone was to wear a T-shirt claiming that ‘Jimmy Saville was a nice man’ what is to stop them being arrested too?

“If we are to protect freedom in this country then we have to accept that even offensive idiots have the right to express their views. The fact that many people may be upset by them is not a sufficient justification.”