Man pleads guilty to sending messages inciting racial hatred to chat group of 12,000

Ehsan Hussain admitted to publishing written material to stir up racial hatred during last month’s unrest at Birmingham Magistrates Court on Wednesday following an investigation by West Midlands Police into offensive messages.

The 25-year-old, of Coventry Road in Yardley, was found to have used a fake name belonging to another person to post messages on Telegram in a chat group containing more than 12,000 members during the violent disorder which hit the country in August.

The posts called for disorder in Alum Rock and Bordesley Green and incited racial hatred, while a member of the public was wrongly identified on social media as being the source of the messages.

Hussain has been remanded into custody and will be sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday.

A spokesman for West Midlands Police said: "A local man from Birmingham has pleaded guilty to publishing written material to stir up racial hatred during last month’s unrest following an investigation into offensive messages.

"Ehsan Hussain, aged 25 from Yardley, admitted the offence today (Wednesday) at Birmingham Magistrates Court and will be sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday.

"Hussain used a fake name belonging to an innocent member of the public to post numerous and vile messages on Telegram in a chat group containing over 12,000 members during the violent disorder across the UK in August.

"Screenshots of the posts were captured which called for disorder in Alum Rock and Bordesley Green in Birmingham and incited racial violence.

"We were made aware that a member of the public who is unrelated to Hussain was wrongly identified on social media as being the source of the messages.

"That man has been spoken to by officers and is being supported.

"Hussain has been remanded in custody ahead of his sentencing."

Chief Superintendent Richard North, from Birmingham Police, said: “This has been an excellent but complex investigation.

“We would like to thank members of the public for alerting us to these posts which was crucial at a time when we were seeing lots of rumour, speculation and misinformation online; we know this can be extremely harmful to all of our communities.

“We do not tolerate violence in our towns and cities, or tolerate those who use social media to encourage such violence.”