A MAN who referred to a Fylde war hero as “low life scum” on Facebook has been found guilty of sending a grossly offensive communication.
Sgt Nigel Coupe, 33, from St Annes, was serving in Afghanistan with the 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment when he was killed in March by a Taliban bomb.
Two days after the father-of-two’s death, Azhar Ahmed, 20, logged on to Facebook to question why people were upset the soldiers had died.
Ahmed, of Fir Avenue, Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, posted: “People gassin about the deaths of Soldiers! What about the innocent familys who have been brutally killed.
“The women who have been raped. The children who have been sliced up!
“Your enemy’s were the Taliban not innocent harmful familys.
“All soldiers should DIE & go to HELL!
“Gotta problem. Go cry at your soldiers grave and wish him hell because that’s where he is going.”
The St Annes father of two was killed alongside Cpl Jake Hartley, 20, Pvt Anthony Frampton, 20, Pvt Christopher Kershaw, 19, Pvt Daniel Wade, 20, and Pvt Daniel Wilford, 21, all of 3rd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment.
Ahmed admitted posting the message in March, but told Huddersfield Magistrates Court he thought it was distressing but not offensive.
District Judge Jane Goodwin said Ahmed’s Facebook remarks were “derogatory, disrespectful and inflammatory.”
He said he had no idea it would cause so much upset and as soon as he realised what reaction it was having he deleted it.
Ahmed said: “I didn’t intend to insult them at the time.
“When I read back on it, that’s when I realised I had actually insulted and upset a lot of people.”
He said he replied with apologies to many people who commented on his page and when some told him they had lost relatives in Afghanistan he realised how serious it was.
Ahmed added: “That’s when I realised it was unacceptable for them to see something so upsetting and distressing, to write something like that.
But Niall Carlin, prosecuting, said the parents of one of the six soldiers who died in the incident saw the posting, which was copied around the internet.
Ahmed was bailed after the district judge told him she wanted a pre-sentence report prepared.
He is due back in court for sentence on October 9.