MAN JAILED FOR SENDING VILE RACIAL ABUSIVE TEXT MESSAGES, EXPLICIT VIDEO

WESTMINSTER, London – As National Hate Crime Awareness Week draws to a close, a man has been jailed for six months for sending racially abusive messages following an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Service.

Michael O’Riley, 32 , of Cranleigh Gardens, Bridgewater, Somerset was sentenced at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 19 October for racially aggravated public disorder after sending text messages to a man he wrongly believed was involved with the girl he had been dating.

He received a further six months imprisonment for disclosing private sexual images (a video) of the female; and a 12-week concurrent sentence for harassment.

In May 2017, O’Riley struck up a relationship with the female after contacting her via social media. Unbeknownst to her, he took an explicit video of her while she slept – sending it to a male work colleague whose details he found on her mobile phone. He had found text messages between the pair and wrong believed they were in a relationship. Over the following weeks O’Riley proceeded to bombard the man with dozens of offensive text messages, including racially abusive ones.

When the female victim found out about the footage he had taken of her she told O’Riley she wanted nothing further to do with him; but he continued to send her messages and called her more than 100 times.

Officers from Kensington and Chelsea Community Safety Unit investigated as the explicit photos were taken on the borough. O’Riley was arrested in Liverpool on 5 October and charged two days later.

T/DC Mo Osman, Kensington and Chelsea, said: “O’Riley sent vile and highly racially offensives messages to the victims; as well as sharing sexual images the victim did not know he had taken. I am pleased that the gravity of his crimes has been acknowledged by the judge with a custodial sentence.”