On January 24 2022, at Peterborough Crown Court, Nelson was found guilty of racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress and of sending a letter/electronic communication/article with intent to cause distress or anxiety. When the sentencing took place two months later at Southwark Crown Court, however, he was given 18 months in prison yet that was suspended for two years. This meant that, until this months successful appeal by CAA, Nelson was set to be spared prison, in spite of the fact that he had been found guilty of the same crime not once but twice before, and despite the latest offence occurring within the time-frame of an earlier suspended sentence.

The first was in 2018, when Nelson was handed a 20-week prison sentence, suspended for a year, after admitting harassing two Jewish then-Labour MPs, Luciana Berger and Ruth Smeeth. Then, in 2020, he was handed a 30-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, after repeatedly targeting Dame Margaret Hodge and Dame Louise Ellman (both Jewish), and Lord John Mann, whom he called c----s and told to leave the party and die.

With Nelson avoiding jail for the third time, not only did I feel a lack of justice for the four years of my life he had poisoned, I was left wondering: what exactly does it take for antisemitism to be taken seriously? This is why, together with Campaign Against Antisemitism, I appealed the outcome. After an intervention from the Attorney General, the Court of Appeal re-examined the sentence on July 15, and the result was emphatic. The original judges decision was stridently overturned; Nelson had to surrender himself and was immediately sent to prison for 18 months.

The Court of Appeal stated that the harassment I experienced was some of the worst kind imaginable, about as low as it can get, the most despicable of all in a crowded field. It added: For the avoidance of doubt, the fear of violence being perpetrated was entirely rational and justifiable.

And so the saga was brought to an end. Nelson, a racist internet troll, was plucked out of the shadows, and is now in a prison cell. The hands that once spread hate online are now chained. The message to all anti-Semites is clear: you dont get to abuse Jews for free. You will be found and you will be the one that suffers. This is a message that can be applied to all internet trolls. The game is over. The world is sick of you. People are motivated to find you and there are now ways to do so.

Originally posted here:

I tracked down my Corbynite troll and now he's in prison - The Telegraph