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A company director who described the Hillsborough disaster as a “great day” on an online football forum has been handed a suspended jail sentence.<\/p>\n
Paul O’Neill was convicted of sending malicious communications on a football forum about the 1989 stadium crush, that led to the deaths of 97 Liverpool fans.<\/p>\n
Judge Bernadette Baxter handed O’Neill a 13-month sentence, suspended for two years, at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court.<\/p>\n
She said the 50-year-old’s actions “were a deliberate act to cause hurt and distress to other people”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
O’Neill, of Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, appeared in the dock wearing a black t-shirt and grey jogging bottoms.<\/p>\n
His defence barrister said he had “expressed deep regret” and “recognises that a previous conviction for racially aggravated verbal abuse will not help his case”.<\/p>\n
He said O’Neill had been reacting to other posts that mentioned the Munich air disaster, the 1958 runway crash that killed eight of Manchester United’s famous “Busby Babes” team.<\/p>\n
Judge Baxter said O’Neill had “used a pseudonym which led you to post the most disgusting comments” and he had “done it quite deliberately knowing the harm it was intended to cause”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
O’Neill was also convicted of failing to surrender after he did not attend court for a trial on 12 August last year.<\/p>\n
The trial at Manchester Magistrates’ Court, which magistrates ruled could go ahead without him, heard O’Neill had also called Liverpool fans “vermin”.<\/p>\n
Other posts he made in October 2022 including a suggestion that some Liverpool fans were still alive in body bags the next day.<\/p>\n
In evidence given at the trial, Hillsborough survivor Marco Catena, 60, from Prenton, Wirral, said O’Neill’s comment was the “most evil Hillsborough-related comment ever”.<\/p>\n
“The venom in the messages. I can’t understand it,” he added. <\/p>\n
Mr Catena told the court he experienced suicidal thoughts, nightmares and flashbacks after the disaster, and O’Neill’s comments had badly affected his mental health.<\/p>\n
Excerpts from a police interview were also heard during the trial, in which O’Neill admitted posting the messages.<\/p>\n
He told police: “Yes that was me, I don’t dispute anything.”<\/p>\n
O’Neill admitted his comments were “very distasteful” and said he “shouldn’t have got involved”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n