Liverpool supporters banned from video games for 3 years for vile abuse aimed toward rival followers
Three men have been banned from attending Liverpool matches for three years after they were found guilty of shouting racist and homophobic abuse at football games
A trio of Liverpool supporters have been given football banning orders for hate crimes committed at Liverpool matches. Matthew Guy, Ben Lloyd and Alan Maher were each convicted for their respective offences in court.
Matthew Guy, 49, and Ben Lloyd, 28, both hailing from Tarporley in Cheshire, admitted to hurling homophobic slurs at Chelsea fans and players during the Liverpool vs Chelsea match on October 20.
On Wednesday, December 28, both men were found guilty of Homophobic Section 5 Public Order and handed a three-year football banning order along with a £100 fine at South Sefton Magistrates Court.
Alan Maher, 55, from County Meath in the Republic of Ireland, confessed to shouting racist abuse at a Liverpool player during the Liverpool vs Bournemouth game on September 21.
Maher was convicted of Racially Aggravated Section 5 Public Order and given a three-year football banning order plus a £535 fine at South Sefton Magistrates Court earlier this month.
Chief Inspector Iain Wyke said: “This type of behaviour displayed by these latest three men to be convicted for hate crime has no place in football.
“They have each been issued with football banning orders for hateful and offensive chanting at Liverpool games which caused distress to others, and this is wholly unacceptable.
“This ban prevents them now from attending any football game in the country. I hope these sentencing sends a clear message and acts as a deterrent to others that we will be put you before the courts to be prosecuted.”
According to legal experts Hodge Jones and Allen, a football banning order is “an order made by a Magistrates’ Court that prohibits the person named in the order from attending a regulated football match”.
They explain: A regulated match is any association (FA) football match (in England or Wales). What that means in simple terms is any match in a recognised professional and possibly semi-professional league”.
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