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Football

08th Apr 2019

Arrest made over racist abuse of Wigan’s Nathan Byrne on Twitter

Simon Lloyd

Byrne shared a direct message he’d received on Twitter on Saturday

Police have arrested a man in connection with the racist abuse received by Wigan Athletic’s Nathan Byrne over the weekend.

Byrne, who played in his side’s 2-2 draw at Bristol City on Saturday afternoon, later shared an image on Twitter of an offensive direct message which had been sent to him on the platform.

A 20-year-old man from Sheffield has since handed himself in to police in Blackpool on Saturday. He was questioned on suspicion of committing a racially aggravated public order offence and malicious communications and has been released pending further investigation.

A statement from Liverpool Hope University said it believed the man was one of its students and added it was investigating the incident urgently.

 

The offensive message was sent to Byrne on the same day that police arrested a man during Brentford’s game with Derby County after midfielder Duane Holmes had allegedly been racially abused shortly after being substituted.

“Duane Holmes complained that he was racially abused – I didn’t see it, I was facing play and a fan came up to him at the side of the dugout and abused him,” Derby boss Frank Lampard told Sky Sports.

“Because it’s such an important issue I don’t want to go beyond what I know, but it was very clearly reported by the players and the people around.”