Football fan gets four year banning order after calling rival supporters 'paedos'

Sunderland AFC season ticket holder Jack James Smith, from Hartlepool, shouted the abuse at Middlesbrough fans.

Smith hurled the abuse as he left the Riverside Ground following the derby game in January of this year.

Smith, 21, of Fernville Close, Hartlepool, was convicted of threatening behaviour at Teesside Magistrates' Court in March and fined £450.

An application to make him the subject of a banning order was adjourned after Nick Woodhouse, defending, said Smith contested the order.

Mr Woodhouse told the resumed hearing this week Smith no longer opposed the order.

Laura Johnson, prosecuting, said Smith had been made the subject of a banning order in 2013, which he had breached in 2015.

Mr Woodhouse said Smith's record for other offences is limited.

"He was originally a Hartlepool fan," Mr Woodhouse told the court.

"After the first banning order expired, he decided to follow Sunderland because he thought he would be a marked man at Hartlepool games.

"He tells me he followed Sunderland home and away and has had no problems other than the incident at Middlesbrough.

"A ban means he will miss the last Sunderland match against Wolves, and will also miss at least one season of League One football."

The bench banned Smith from all regulated football matches for four years.

The ban means he must also steer clear of the Stadium of Light on match days, and keep away from any ground at which Sunderland is playing an away match.