Man sentenced for racist social media messages

A man has been sentenced today after admitting harassing a man by posting numerous anti-Chinese messages on social media. He also accepted posting an offensive anti-Muslim message.

Radeko Keleman, 44, was sentenced to 32 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months. This included a 10-week uplift to mark the hate element of the offences.

During the period of suspension, Keleman must complete a 20-day rehabilitation requirement and 180 hours of unpaid work.

In February 2023, Keleman initially posted a comment around the death of a transgender girl.

When a man told Keleman they found the comments unacceptable, he launched a campaign of vile racist abuse directed towards them. Despite pleas for Keleman to stop, he began sending messages to the man’s friends with similar abuse directed at him.

Over a three-week period, he sent in excess of 100 abusive messages.

Keleman was arrested for malicious communications. In police interview, he admitted that he had sent the messages and was very apologetic.

He was released with a warning, in the hope that this would be sufficient to stop the offending. However, in May 2023 the man again contacted the police to report that the abuse was continuing, with racist messages and images being posted on his social media accounts.

When the man tried to block Keleman, he created new profiles to post further messages, including an anti-Muslim post.

When he was arrested a second time, Keleman made no comment in police interview, but later pleaded guilty at court.

To fully appraise the court of the impact of the harassment, the CPS read the victim’s impact statement in open court, where the victim stated: “I felt incredibly threatened, violated and disgusted by his actions over the past few months.”

Asad Khan, Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West, said:” Radeko Keleman’s vile comments have caused much distress and the fact he continued following his first arrest shows how little remorse he had.

“I would like to thank the man for coming forward and reporting the abuse.

“Keleman will now face the consequences of his actions.”