Greater Manchester Police (GMP) arrested Savills estate agent Andrew Bone for allegedly posting a racist tweet about England’s soccer players.
The messages posted on the Twitter account Mr. Bone were addressed to the English soccer team’s black stars after they missed their penalties in the European Championship’s final.
However, the 37-year-old man self-presented at Cheadle Heath police station on Wednesday morning, claiming that his Twitter account had been hacked.
The tweet posted on Sunday read: “N***** s ruined it for us.”
The commercial building manager was widely accused of being a racist. Subsequently, he deleted the post and asked the police to investigate.
Mr. Bone was arrested on suspicion of a crime under Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act.
Later, GMP said that he was released under investigation.
In response, Savills said he would be suspended until authorities issue the inquiry’s results.
The estate agent’s tweets came shortly after English players Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka, and Jadon Sancho missed their penalties in the penalty shootout during the Euro’s final on Sunday.
In the match played at Wembley Stadium, the English team lost to Italy after the Italian goalkeeper saved their efforts in a 3-2 shootout defeat.
Yesterday, media reported that three officers carrying evidence bags and a police radio searched Mr. Bone’s home in Manchester for evidence for 20 minutes.
Agents were seen leaving the terraced property carrying a laptop, the media said.
Mr. Bone’s detention followed the arrest of children’s soccer coach Nick Scott, 50, from Worcestershire.
Mr. Scott was arrested Tuesday night on suspicion of inciting racial hatred, but he denied posting racist tweets and said his account had been hacked.
Amid increasing racial abuse online, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that racist abusers on the Internet would be banned from football matches.
Besides, he summoned social media companies to a meeting in Downing Street, asking them to improve “their game” on racism online.
Meanwhile, Portsmouth FC and the FA launched an investigation into allegations that some club’s academy players racially abused England players in a leaked group chat.
Also, Detective Inspector Matt Gregory of the force’s Trafford division said: “The actions of a small number of people overshadowed what was a hugely unifying event for our country on Sunday evening. We are firm in our commitment, any racist abuse whether online or off is not acceptable.”
