A Dorset, England man has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after admitting to publishing social media posts that called for violence against Islamic newcomers and urged people to burn down taxpayer funded hotels housing asylum seekers.
Luke Yarwood, 36, pleaded guilty at Bournemouth Crown Court to two counts of publishing writen material intended to stir up racial hatred. The charges stem from posts he made on X that prosecutors said crossed the line from political expression into direct incitement of violence.
The court heard that one of the posts was written in response to media coverage of the December 20, 2024 car attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, which killed six people and injured more than 300. The suspect in that case, Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen, a Saudi national and doctor, is currently on trial. A day after the attack, Yarwood posted: “Head for the hotels housing them and burn them to the ground," accordting to GB News.
A second post followed weeks later on January 29. In it, Yarwood wrote: “I think it's time for Britain 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 MP houses in Parliament. We need to take over by force.”
Prosecutor Siobhan Linsley described the two messages as “bookends” to a broader pattern of posts expressing hostility toward asylum seekers and Muslims. While the two offending tweets were viewed just 33 times, other posts made by Yarwood during the same period reached more than 800 users.
The posts were reported to police by Yarwood’s own brother-in-law, with whom he had an ongoing dispute.
Linsley told the court that although the immediate risk of disorder from Yarwood’s comments was lower than in similar cases, tensions surrounding asylum accommodation remain high across the UK thanks to unchecked immigration, with police still dealing with near-daily protests at migrant hotels due in large part to crime they've unleashed in communities.
Judge Jonathan Fuller KC said Yarwood had a “preoccupation with immigrants” and an “obssession with Islam,” alongside what he described as “extremely right-wing views.” He told Yarwood that freedom of speech is not absolute and said the posts were “odious in the extreme” and among the clearest examples of language intended to stir up racial hatred and incite violence.
Defence lawyere Nick Tucker argued that the posts were “the impotent rantings of a socially-isolated man with fragile mental health” and caused no real-world harm. He said Yarwood now accepts his comments were “uneducated, ignorant and odious,”
