He was sentenced to 50 days in prison, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work
A man who posted a video to Facebook in which he racially abused Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka following England’s Euro 2020 final defeat to Italy on penalties has been handed a suspended prison sentence.
Bradford Pretty, 50, was sentenced to 50 days in prison which has been suspended for 12 months. He was also ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday where he admitted that he sent a message that was ‘grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character’.
Pretty had uploaded a video in which he used two racist terms to describe Rashford, Sancho and Saka after they missed penalties which saw England lose the Euro 2020 final.
At the start of the clip, Pretty can be heard saying: “Where do I start? Where do I start?
“So gutted like all of us.
“Proper deflated, big proud of the boys, big proud, but anyone and everyone that knows me well will understand what I am talking about.”
After being questioned in the comments of the video, the 50-year-old apologised to those who were offended but then blamed ‘political correctness’ for why people may be offended, saying that he was “standing up and saying what I said for the weak ones…”
After playing the video at the court, Julie Farbrace said: “It shows him talking about the game… in particular talking about the England players who had missed a penalty at the final.
“In relation to the matter there were people who commented on the video, people who were upset about the word he put in there.”
Pretty’s defence solicitor Richard Graham meanwhile did state that the video recorded was “abhorrent” and that he had drank “15 or 16” cans of lager on the day of the final and was “clearly heavily intoxicated.”
Chairman of the bench Chris Mackenny told Pretty that his offending “clearly passes the custody threshold” but suspended the sentence of 50 days in prison for 12 months. He also stated that Pretty would have to complete 200 hours of unpaid work whilst also paying prosecution costs and a court surcharge which added up to £213.
Related links:
- Cheshire man sentenced for racist abuse of England players after Euro 2020
- 11 arrests made in investigation of racist abuse towards England players
- Man who filmed racist England rant on Facebook banned from local pub
