Andy Gill
BBC North West Tonight, reporter

We can bring you more now on the news that a woman from Cheshire who suggested on Facebook that a mosque “should be blown up with the adults inside” has been jailed for 15 months.

Julie Sweeney, 53, from Church Lawton, admitted a charge of sending a communication threatening death or serious harm when she appeared at Chester Crown Court this afternoon.

The court heard that Sweeney was responding to a Facebook post which showed people helping to repair the Southport mosque after it was damaged in violent disorder after the stabbings.

She wrote: “It’s absolutely ridiculous. Don’t protect the mosque. Blow the mosque up with the adults in it.”

Sarah Badrawy, prosecuting, said the Facebook group usually carried items about local events and lost and found items. It has just over 5000 members.

She accepted that Sweeney’s post was made out of anger, not because of racism, and was reckless rather than genuinely intended to put people in fear.

John Keane, defending Sweeney, said she’d lived a “quiet, sheltered life in Cheshire.” She’d never been in trouble before and was genuinely remorseful.

He said Sweeney was the primary carer for her husband who has health problems.

Judge Stephen Everett told Sweeney: “You should have looked at the news with horror like right minded people. Instead you chose to take part in stirring up hatred. It was a truly terrible threat.”

The judge said no one was suggesting that Sweeney would have taken part in any violence but “so called keyboard warriors like her have to learn to take responsibility for their inflammatory and disgusting language.”

Sweeney wiped away tears as Judge Everett jailed her for 15 months and said “Thank you, your honour” at the end of the hearing.