Former semi-pro footballer Shaun Tuck has a series of convictions for racist trolling (Picture: Cavendish Press)
A football fan with a history of racist trolling has been jailed for 15 weeks after racially abusing a fellow Everton supporter online.
Shaun Tuck, 37, from Liverpool, posted a series of racially charged taunts in the comments section of Everton FC’s official Facebook page in August last year.
A court heard he flew off the handle after seeing posts by a Liverpool FC fan about Everton’s likelihood of being relegated out of the Premier League.
Police said some of his responses included ‘racist abuse about a fellow Everton supporter’.
They included calling someone ‘Kit-Kat toes’ as well as references to ‘your tribe’, living in a ‘mud swamp’ and suggestions they have ‘yet to see a house, clean water, hot food, food without flies’.
In one comment, he wrote: ‘And I have tweeted Bob Geldof to never ever do another concert for you!’
Tuck, who previously played semi-professionally for a number of lower league sides, was previously jailed for 12 weeks in 2013 after calling on Twitter for British mosques to be ‘gassed out or bombed’ in the wake of soldier Lee Rigby’s murder.
Everton fan Tuck flew into a rage over posts about his sides relegation prospects (Picture: Cavendish Press)
The following year he was handed a suspended sentence for calling a black man an ‘orangutan’ and writing ‘I hope his families banana boat sinks’ in another online rant.
A court heard Tuck began posting his latest comments five hours into a lager and vodka-fuelled bender with friends, and continued commenting for two hours.
After his arrest he admitted the posts came from his Facebook account but claimed someone else had written them.
Angela Conlan, prosecuting, said: ‘He says that he had been in a group of lads and girls and they must have done it whilst he had gone to the toilet.’
Ms Conlan added: ‘During the interview when asked about one of the statements, “All the best on the 175 mile walk to the mud swamp for a drink”, he said: “That would not have been offensive to me. It is common knowledge that they have to walk that far.”
‘When asked how he knew that, he said he did not.’
The court heard Tuck was indeed responsible for the posts made from his phone.
Asked about the posts which sparked his anger, Tuck said: ‘Everton Football Club is the first thing I ever loved in my life. I spent half of my school life arguing with people who say “Everton are sh*te”.
‘I am very defensive about Everton. But sometimes I hate them as much as Liverpool fans because of the misery they put me through.’
Sentencing, Judge Timothy Boswell said there was ‘no excuse’ for Tuck’s comments, telling him: ‘You had to type that out and push the button to post it. It is not something that has just come out of your mouth in a split second.
‘It is something that you have taken the time to type and then to post.’
As well as a prison sentence, Tuck was also banned from all football matches for the next six years.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.