Sunderland man guilty of sending racist tweet to on-loan Newcastle player

Footballer Ivan Toney in action for Wigan Athletic.

The message was sent to striker Ivan Toney on social networking website Twitter in December 2017, when he was on loan at Wigan Athletic.

Wigan Athletic notified Twitter and Greater Manchester Police and worked with authorities to identify the person responsible.

Calvin White, 25, of Hollycarrside Road, Sunderland, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated harassment when he appeared at South Tyneside Magistrates' Court.

He was sentenced to a community order of 12 months, 120 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £170 costs.

A statement from Kick It Out, which works to tackle discrimination in football, said: "We applaud Wigan Athletic for notifying both Twitter and the police.

"Discriminatory abuse is no less unacceptable when it is carried out on social media, and this shows that however and wherever this occurs there is no hiding place.

“However, it also proves that there is still a lot of work to be done in and around the game to tackle discrimination and educate offenders.”

A Northumbria Police spokesman said: “We do not tolerate hate crime, racism or discriminatory abuse of any kind and this conviction shows we will pursue offenders and take action against them.

“We would always encourage anybody who is subjected to this type of offence to contact police.”