Viscount Faces Jail Over Online Threats To Brexit Campaigner Gina Miller

Viscount Faces Jail Over Online Threats To Brexit Campaigner Gina Miller
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A viscount who offered money on Facebook for someone to kill Brexit campaigner Gina Miller faces jail after being convicted of sending menacing messages.

Rhodri Philipps, 50, the 4th Viscount St Davids, wrote a message just four days after Ms Miller won a landmark High Court challenge against the Government last year.

He posted: "£5,000 for the first person to 'accidentally' run over this bloody troublesome first generation immigrant."

He described her as a "boat jumper" and added: "If this is what we should expect from immigrants, send them back to their stinking jungles."

Philipps, of Knightsbridge, central London, was convicted of two counts of sending menacing messages on a public electronic communications network and cleared of one count after a trial at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

Senior district judge Emma Arbuthnot said: "I had no doubt that the first post was menacing ... You were offering money to have her killed."

She said: "Looking at the language you use to Ms Miller ... 'f****** jumper'. That is not political debate."

The judge added: "To some who don't know you they would perceive the offers of bounty as menacing."

Ms Arbuthnot found the post about Ms Miller to be racially aggravated and told Philipps he faces a prison sentence.

Ms Miller, 52, said she found his comments about her "genuinely shocking" and she felt "violated".

She said she was "very scared for the safety of herself and her family" in a statement read to the court on Monday.

"In addition to finding it offensive, racist and hateful, she was extremely concerned that someone would threaten to have her run over for a bounty," prosecutor Philip Stott said in opening.

"She took the threat seriously, and it contributed to her employing professional security for her protection."

Ms Miller was subjected to a torrent of abuse and threats after spearheading the legal challenge which forced Theresa May to consult Parliament before beginning the formal process of leaving the EU.

The Guyana-born mother-of-three was seen arriving at court as a witness but did not give evidence as her statement was agreed.

The other post Philipps was convicted for was in response to a news article about an immigrant.

He wrote: "I will open the bidding. £2,000 in cash for the first person to carve Arnold Sube into pieces. Piece of shit."

Ms Arbuthnot said the posts would "cause apprehension in a reasonable person reading them in this multi-racial country we live in".

In a previous post, he said: "I would vote for Trump if I could."

Philipps, also known as Lord St Davids, accepted writing the posts but said they were not publicly visible and were not menacing.

He insisted he is not racist and told the court: "I know a number of Muslims who are dear friends.

"My own mother is an immigrant from the very same continent (as Ms Miller)."

Philipps, who represented himself in court, admitted during his evidence that he was "incandescent" after Ms Miller's legal challenge.

"She's left a third-world country to come to Britain. It's not for first generation immigrants to behave the way Gina Miller did," he added.

He insisted his posts were meant as "an opening for debate", and continued: "It's how I express myself, not for everyone's taste or liking.

"If you're in the public eye, people are going to say nasty things about you. It's the rough and tumble of public life."

Kate Mulholland from the Crown Prosecution Service said: "This threat caused extreme concern to Gina Miller and although Lord St Davids claimed his Facebook friends would have been tolerant of his views, they were open to the public.

"No-one should have these kind of menacing comments made to them or about them and where there is evidence of an offence the CPS and police will bring a prosecution."

Philipps will be sentenced at Westminster Magistrates' Court at 2pm on Thursday.