Man sentenced for sending 'vile' and 'totally abhorrent' racist messages to Tamworth footballer

Harry Dunbar, 20, of John Bunyan Close in Whiteley, sent racial slurs via Instagram to Christopher Wreh, following an FA Cup match between Tamworth and Tottenham Hotspur in January of this year.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary's football unit and investigations team launched an investigation to track down the perpetrator.

Wreh was a substitute for Tamworth during the game, but received a message from an account he did not know called 'Dunztagram' afterwards.

He posted a screenshot of the message including the username on his social media, with a message that said: "After an amazing day today, this is the last thing I expected to see when I opened Instagram. Never the less, thank you for all the support today. Fans were unreal."

Wreh was then contacted and sent personal messages by others who identified the account holder as Harry Dunbar, who was living in Hampshire at the time.

Once evidence had been gathered, police attended the home address of Harry Dunbar in Whiteley and he was arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated malicious communications.

His phone was seized and it was identified that he was the owner of the 'Dunztagram' account. In interview he then admitted sending the message because he had lost a bet.

Dunbar was sentenced at Portsmouth Magistrates Court on Wednesday, June 18, where he was handed a three-year football banning order and a 12-month community order of 200 hours unpaid work and 10 Rehabilitation Activity Requirement days.

Superintendent Adrian Hall, head of the operations unit for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary, said: "Just because Christopher Wreh was a footballer, Dunbar decided he had the right to send him a tirade of racist insults.

"Nobody should ever be subjected to such vile and disgusting abuse, regardless of what they do for a living.

"I am absolutely appalled by the racist language used by Dunbar, but immensely thankful to Christopher Wreh for his bravery in standing up to this horrible abuse and assisting the police investigation.”

Cheshire Constabulary chief constable Mark Roberts, the NPCC Lead for football policing, said: “Everyone is responsible for what they do and say, and posting a message on social media is no different.

“His comments were totally abhorrent and quite rightly they shocked and appalled people across the country when Wreh bravely shared the message that he had been sent.”

For more information about the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary, click here.