Derby Fan Banned for Life After Tweeting About Billy Sharp's Son

[Stan 9,012]

maybe i'm missing something but to be warranted a life ban, I expected the tweets to be much worse than they were?

 

Quote

 

Derby County FC has handed a lifetime ban to a fan who posted "abusive" tweets about the death of Sheffield United striker Billy Sharp's son.

The boy, Luey Jacob, was born with his intestines outside his body - known as gastroschisis - and died just two days after his birth in 2011.

Derby County officials tracked down the fan and interviewed him.

He has since deleted the tweets and posted a message saying: "Sorry to everyone for any harm caused."

The fan, called Jordan Byrne on Twitter, retweeted a message from the official Derby County Twitter feed about Sharp scoring a goal, but added the words "Dead son".

A friend then asked him: "Everything okay at home Bernie?x"

He responded by saying: "Billy Sharp's son is dead x"

The tweets came to the attention of Sharp and his partner Jade Fair, who both tweeted about it.

The couple previously set up the LJS Foundation to raise awareness of gastroschisis and money for research.

Derby County said in a statement: "While he apologised for his actions, Derby County stand firm that behaviour of this nature is entirely unacceptable and requires strong action.

"Derby County condemns all forms of abuse and will act quickly to punish anybody who is responsible for this type of grossly offensive behaviour."

The lifetime ban prevents the fan from attending any Derby County games, home and away, with immediate effect.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-41093804

[Spike 2,532]

Reap waht you sow.

[Lucas 1,937]

Good on Derby County. They don't want to be tarred in a matter like this and they don't want to be associated with 'fans' like this. Making an example of them, no matter how harsh it may seem, is the perfect message to send to anyone who dares follow suit. It's too easy for these keyboard warriors to sit behind a screen and say whatever they like.

[Steve Bruce Almighty 2,759]

This is interesting. If the lad was anonymous with a made up username and avatar he would have gotten away with it.

 

[Fairy In Boots 528]

Hang on an I missing something here, he retweeted a goal alert saying "Dead son" then when asked what it means said "Billy Sharps son is dead" by my understanding of that article. So my question is what's abusive? 

[Stan 9,012]

3 minutes ago, Fairy In Boots said:

Hang on an I missing something here, he retweeted a goal alert saying "Dead son" then when asked what it means said "Billy Sharps son is dead" by my understanding of that article. So my question is what's abusive? 

that's what I thought. it might be a bit weird and pointless to tweet it of course. just a massive idiot