Man who said Captain Sir Tom Moore should ‘burn’ guilty of ‘offensive tweet’

The tweet was posted the day after the 100-year-old fundraising hero died (Picture: EPA)

A man who said Captain Sir Tom Moore should ‘burn auld fella buuuuurn’ the day after the 100-year-old fundraising hero died has been found guilty of sending a ‘grossly offensive’ tweet.

Joseph Kelly, 36, posted on February 3 last year that ‘the only good Brit soldier is a deed one, burn auld fella buuuuurn’.

It came after war hero Captain Sir Tom, who raised more than £32 million for the NHS, died following a battle with pneumonia and Covid-19.

Lanark Sheriff Court heard Kelly’s ‘gratuitous insult’ was made ‘with only offence in mind’.

Sheriff Adrian Cottam told Kelly: ‘This is a man who had become known as a national hero, who stood for the resilience of the people of a country struggling with a pandemic and the services trying to protect them.

‘His statute and the view of society towards him must be looked at in that light and therefore any comment likewise.

‘What the accused chose to write, when and how it was said, can only be regarded as grossly offensive.’

The war hero walked 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday, raising more than £32 million for the NHS (Picture: EPA)

Joseph Kelly denied the tweet was ‘grossly offensive’

He threatened to put Kelly in the cells if he did not stop shaking his head as prosecutor Liam Haggert spoke about Sir Tom.

But Cameron Smith, defending, argued that the tweet could not be described as ‘grossly offensive’.

It did not concern a protected characteristic, like race, religion, or gender, and did not incite violence, he said.

While it might be ‘unpleasant’ and ‘unsavoury’, it did not pass the threshold, it was claimed.

One person who saw the tweet, whose family served in the armed forces, told the court of her upset at the message.

Janet Hunter Jess, 72, said: ‘To see someone wishing British soldiers dead, it still hurts me.

Kelly’s ‘gratuitous insult’ was made ‘with only offence in mind’, the court heard

‘It still hurts me that anybody would disrespect someone that had given their live for the country.’

The charge under the Communications Act said that Kelly made a post to the public using social media that was ‘grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character, and that did utter offensive remarks about Captain Sir Tom Moore, now deceased’.

Kelly has been released on bail, and will appear before the court again in March for sentencing.

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