A man who tried to report Humza Yousaf and Anas Sarwar to police for ‘hate crimes’ found himself in the dock for his racist rants about the politicians.
Matthew Whyte called the former First Minister a ‘brown s*** stain’.
Complaining about the leader of Scottish Labour he spoke of ‘Nazi brown scum’.
Whyte, 56, appeared at Tain Sheriff Court for sentencing yesterday.
He admitted sending racially motivated offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing messages by means of a public communications network.
Fiscal depute Adelle Gray told the court that on April 11 of this year, Whyte made a call to police in an attempt to report the then First Minister for a ‘hate crime’.
Whyte identified himself and gave his details to the call handler, telling them his wished to make a complaint about a speech made by the First Minister.
The court heard Whyte “sounded angry” and “raised his voice” during the call.
Racist and derogatory terms
He then proceeded to “rant about the First Minister using racist and derogatory terms,” Ms Gray said.
She told Sheriff Neil Wilson that during the course of the call, Whyte referred to the politician as “That Pakistani brown s*** stain.”
Officers reviewed the call.
Then on April 15, Whyte submitted an online form to Police Scotland – again to report a hate crime.
Whyte used his own name, address, phone number and email.
He called Anas Sarwar a “little weasel face brown Pakistani man” and accused the leader of Scotland’s Labour party of “making threats and insults against my race.”
The form continued: “Nazi racist brown scum are an offence to common decency” and concluded “the brown stain is a racist and a communist who is inciting race hate.”
Solicitor Willie Young, for Whyte, told the court that his client had “a long and problematic relationship with alcohol.”
‘Ill-advised, clumsy and inappropriate’
He said: “He clearly has an interest in politics.
“He felt motivated to make certain responses, which were ill-advised , clumsy and inappropriate.”
Sheriff Neil Wilson said: “There is free speech in this society.
“We are allowed to express our views in a robust manner.
“But your behaviour, on these occasions – free speech crosses a line into racist abuse.”
The sheriff said drinking was not an excuse for the behaviour.
He added: “I would be perfectly justified in sending you to prison today,”
Instead, Sheriff Wilson placed Whyte, of Kendal Crescent, Alness, on a community payback order with 18 months supervision and 200 hours of unpaid work in the community.
