How bizarre rant about Adolf Hitler landed this Sheffield man in court

Sheffield Crown Court heard, how Andrew Collett, 39, of Birch Tree Road, Stocksbridge, had been trying to sell his car on Facebook and when he received an offer under the asking price he bombarded the complainant with racist messages and images.

Stephanie Hollis, prosecuting, said Collett texted the complainant, who was born in India, saying if he did not like the offer he should go to the gas chambers and wait for the smoke and he sent insults and a further comment urging the complainant to go back to Islamabad.

Ms Hollis added there were further messages with insults including an image of Hitler with the caption “My hero” and a further image with burning dead bodies with the comment “burn-burn”.

Collett told police he knew what he had done was wrong and claimed he did not hold racist views.

He pleaded guilty to racially-aggravated harassment after the messages were sent in June.

The complainant stated he has not been sleeping properly since the offence and he was worried he would get more abuse or something else might happen. Lauren Fisher, defending, said Collett has expressed remorse and a desire to apologise to the complainant.

She added Collett had been working as an industrial painter at the time and he had acted under peer-group pressure and he had behaved out of character.

Judge Sarah Wright told Collett: “The complainant made contact with you and you replied with a series of messages with a torrent of racial abuse including some disgusting images.”

Judge Wright added that it was clearly wrong that Collett did not hold racist views because he had made such awful comments and sent deplorable images.

Collett was sentenced to three months of custody suspended for 12 months with a Rehabilitation Activity Requirement and 200 hours of unpaid work.

He must also pay £1,000 in compensation. Judge Wright added Collett had been spared from jail out of concern for his dependent partner and three children.