Sheffield Wednesday fan faces jail sentence over Bradley Lowery incident at Sunderland match

The man who admitted a public order offence after the apparent mocking of Bradley Lowery at Sheffield United's home match against Sunderland at Hillsborough faces a potential jail sentence for his 'utterly deplorable' behaviour.

Dale Houghton, 31, from Rotherham, admitted a public order offence at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court following an incident at Sheffield Wednesday’s clash with Sunderland on Friday, September 29.

Pictures circulated on X, formerly Twitter, showing two men laughing at Wednesday’s Hillsborough Stadium, with one of them – Houghton – holding up a picture of Bradley to the camera.

District Judge James Gould told him “your actions are utterly deplorable” and that all sentence options were open, including a prison sentence.