Man who wrote '˜nuke Muslims' wept as he apologised

A Wigan man who posted on Facebook that Muslims should be 'nuked', wept as he apologised for his actions.
Gary FarrimondGary Farrimond
Gary Farrimond

Gary Farrimond was handed a community order by Wigan magistrates yesterday and afterwards told the Evening Post he was “very sorry” for any offence caused.

The 45-year-old, who was involved in promoting an anti-immigration petition in Standish, had pleaded guilty to sending offensive messages at an earlier hearing.

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Among his vile slurs, Farrimond described black people as not being properly developed and used a term so offensive the Evening Post has chosen not to publish it.

Prosecutor Tess Kenyon told the court how on November 12 last year a police officer at Wigan was alerted to a Facebook post on the group “No more economic migrants in the Britannia hotel”.

Describing what it contained, Ms Kenyon said: “There was an image of a Trojan horse with Isis on its forehead and Syrian refugees on its body.

“Underneath, Mr Farrimond had written ‘is the refugee crisis an Islamic invasion?’”

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Police were also alerted to posts on a Facebook account attributed to “Gary Gaz Farrimond”.

Ms Kenyon told how one read: “They will turn our churches into mosques. I’m after a copy of the Quran so I can burn it.”

Another said: “All foreigners teach their kids to hate the English, let’s do this with our own.”

Another post stated how he was offering bungee jumping adding that, using an offensive reference, Pakistani people go first, “no strings attached”.

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Talking about Muslims in another he wrote: “The sooner they get nuked the better”.

Melissa Fagan, defending, said: “It’s fair to say the defendant does feel ashamed of his actions.

“He is a relatively simple man. He feels someone duped him. He was brought into all of this by another man who befriended him.

“The defendant has had to live with what he has done.”

The presiding magistrate imposed a 12-month community upon Farrimond, consisting of 100 hours’ unpaid work. This was increased from 60 due to the racial nature of the offence.

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Afterwards, he told the Evening Post he had been badly led by somebody else.

He added: “This is not what I’m about, I have been through a lot.

“This has really knocked me. I’m very sorry to anyone offended.”