A man has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for posting messages on X, formerly Twitter, that encouraged people to burn down hotels housing migrants.
Posts reported by family member
Luke Yarwood, 36, was convicted at Bournemouth Crown Court for stirring up racial hatred. His offensive posts, which advocated violence against migrants and Muslims, were reported to the authorities by his brother-in-law, with whom he had a strained relationship.
The court heard that Yarwood's activity on the platform occurred between 21 December 2024 and 29 January 2025. It was triggered by the Magdeburg Christmas market car attack in Germany, which killed six people, and subsequent online misinformation falsely claiming an Islamic extremist was responsible.
The inflammatory tweets
Prosecutor Siobhan Linsley described the posts as "extremely unpleasant" and said they had the potential to spark disorder at migrant hotels in Bournemouth, Dorset, near Yarwood's home.
In one post, replying to content about Germans protesting, Yarwood wrote: ‘Head for the hotels housing them and burn them to the ground.’
Another illegal tweet was a reply to a GB News post. In it, Yarwood stated: ‘I think it’s time for the British to gang together, hit the streets and start the slaughter. Violence and murder is the only way now. Start off burning every migrant hotel then head off to MPs’ houses and Parliament, we need to take over by FORCE.’
Ms Linsley argued that although the two key tweets had only 33 views, Yarwood would have known he was not "shouting into the void" as he was replying to larger accounts.
Defence and sentencing
Yarwood's defence lawyer, Nick Tucker, argued the posts were the "impotent rantings of a socially isolated man" with no "real-world" consequences due to their tiny audience. He said Yarwood was stressed, at a low point, and no longer held these views, acknowledging they were "uneducated, ignorant and odious".
However, Judge Jonathan Fuller decided the tweets were designed to stir up racial hatred and incite violence. He stated that while freedom of speech is a qualified right, the law prohibits stirring racial hatred, which undermines community safety.
‘The tweets speak for themselves, they are odious in the extreme,’ Judge Fuller said. ‘There could be few clearer examples of words specifically designed to stir up racial hatred and incite violence.’
The judge noted Yarwood's "preoccupation with immigrants" and "obsession with Islam", sentencing him to immediate custody due to the seriousness of the offences.
Comparisons to other cases
The prosecutor drew comparisons to the case of Lucy Connolly, who was jailed for inciting racial hatred with a post about the Southport attacks. Her post, seen over 300,000 times before deletion, also called for setting fire to migrant hotels.
Ms Linsley highlighted that while Yarwood's posts did not carry the same immediate high risk of disorder, the atmosphere in the UK around asylum hotels remains "extremely contentious", with daily protests requiring police attention.
