A 25-year-old man arrested following racist tweets sent to two Cobblers players has been released on bail by police.
The Twitter ‘troll’ was arrested this week after abuse was levelled at Clarke Carlisle and Adebayo Akinfenwa, two of Northampton Town’s high profile black footballers.
He was arrested under the Malicious Communications Act and subsequently also arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence of intentionally causing harassment, alarm or distress.
A spokesman for Gloucestershire Police this morning confirmed the man had been released on police bail and ordered to return to Cheltenham police station on May 22.
The Twitter user, called ‘Ben’, sent two messages to Mr Carlisle, using four-letter expletives and a racist term.
He also sent an abusive message to Mr Akinfenwa, again using offensive language towards him.
The troll is from Cheltenham, where Cobblers progressed through to the final of the League Two Play-off Final on Sunday.
The account has since been ‘locked’ by the user. This prevents anyone who is not authorised by the user to follow him on Twitter.
Mr Carlisle is chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), while Mr Akinfenwa is the club’s talismanic centre forward.
Last year, a Twitter troll was jailed after he abused a footballer who collapsed during a match.
Student, Liam Stacey, aged 21, was jailed for inciting racial hatred for comments made while the Fabrice Muamba still lay on the pitch.
Stacey, a Swansea University biology undergraduate, was quickly tracked down, arrested and later jailed for 56 days.