Man who wrote 'burn hotels' post has case quashed

A man who was due to be sentenced over a social media post saying "burn any hotels" used by asylum seekers has been released from prison after a mistake by prosecutors.

Joseph Haythorne, 26, pleaded guilty to publishing material intended to stir up racial hatred after writing on X just as violence erupted outside the Holiday Inn Express, in Manvers, Rotherham on 4 August.

However, Sheffield Crown Court heard the Crown Prosecution Service had not sought the necessary permission from the Attorney General to bring the charge due to an "oversight".

After his original conviction was quashed by Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, Mr Haythorne was told he must appear at Sheffield Magistrates' Court on Wednesday for "the whole process to start again".

Mr Haythorne, from Ashford, in Surrey, had spent the weekend in custody having admitted the offence at a hearing on Friday.

Speaking earlier, Judge Richardson told the hearing any court proceedings up to now were "a nullity".

"I am sorry about this," he said. "I am not best pleased, you have been detained, worse still, you were expecting to be sentenced tomorrow and I can't sentence you tomorrow.

"If on Wednesday consent has been obtained, the proceedings will be starting all over again."

Prosecutor Laura Marshall told the court on Friday Mr Haythorne's post was sent from an anonymised account and viewed by 1,100 people before he deleted it.

It also included a link to a post, which has now been deleted, by the "perhaps divisive figure" activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson.

She said the defendant's full post read: "Go on Rotherham. Burn any hotels [with asylum seekers]."

Ms Marshall said his case had some similarities with the case of Lucy Connolly, who was jailed last year for 31 months after she posted on X: "Mass deportation now, set fire to all the … hotels full of the ... for all I care ... if that makes me racist so be it."

Bianca Brasoveanu, who was defending Mr Haythorne, said he posted the comment in a "momentary lapse of judgment which he regrets every day".

During the anti-immigration demonstrations outside the hotel last August, more than 60 officers were injured after hundreds of people went after police and the hotel with missiles.

A bin against a fire door of the hotel was also set on fire and people then broke into the hotel, which had 240 asylum seekers inside, as well as more than 20 staff.

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