An Iraq War veteran says he has been banned from coaching his daughter’s youth football team after calling the Southport murderer a ‘creature’.
Jamie Michael, from Penygraig in south Wales, was charged with inciting racial hatred following comments he made in a 12-minute Facebook video – only to be cleared by jurors in 17 minutes.
But he has now told of the continuing knock-on effects of his comments following Axel Rudakubana’s attack on a Taylor Swift-themed children’s dance class in Southport, Merseyside, on July 29 last year.
He says he has been accused of using ‘dehumanising language’ about the murderer in a social media message he posted following the killings.
The 47-year-old described some migrants as ‘scumbags’ and ‘psychopaths’ as riots spread across the UK.
Now a local authority board he is suing has accused him of using ‘dehumanising language’ towards Rudakubana, ‘referring to a non-white individual as a “creature”‘, according to documents reportedly lodged with London’s High Court.
Mr Michael, who was an apprentice as a youth with Manchester United, was acquitted in February this year of inciting racial hatred.
The former serviceman had been remanded in prison for 20 days after the decision was made to prosecute him for the clip he posted to Facebook on July 31 last year entitled, ‘This is what I think’.
The post was made two days after the murder of three young girls in Southport by Rudakubana, amid a climate of general unrest over immigration.
Rudakubana has since been jailed for at least 52 years for killing Bebe King, six, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, as well as the attempted murder of eight other children and two adults.
In the clip since seen by more than 16,000 people, Mr Michael, who now works as a massage therapist, urged people ‘to get ready’ – though insisted he was not referring to violent attacks.
He said: ‘We need to start organising. Which doesn’t mean getting bats and knives and going doing what they [the rioters] are doing.
‘I’m talking about doing things the right way, getting in big groups, having meetings, and going to the council and the police and politicians.’
He has since acknowledged some of his views were expressed ‘clumsily’.
Despite his acquittal, Mr Michael was told a ‘child protection concern’ made against him had been ‘substantiated’ less than a fortnight after the jury delivered its not-guilty verdict.
As a result the Football Association of Wales has now barred the father-of-two from coaching his daughter’s team following a meeting held in private with a safeguarding officer and South Wales Police.
The former Royal Marine, who is suing his local authority, the safeguarding board and the Football Association of Wales for £25,000 in compensation for damage to his reputation, has now revealed his use of the word ‘creature’ in describing Rudakubana was highlighted.
He had said in his Facebook post in August last year: ‘This creature has come from out of the country and now he’s killed three little girls and five others critical.
‘And people are trying to say he is a Cardiff boy. Wise up, people, wise up. We are under attack.’
Rudakubana was born in Cardiff to parents who came to the UK from Rwanda in 2002, then moved in 2013 to the Merseyside seaside resort of Southport where his father worked as a taxi driver.
High Court documents in response to Mr Michael’s lawsuit from Cwm Taf Morgannwg Safeguarding Board reportedly say: ‘The fact remains that the claimant [Mr Michael] posted a video in which used dehumanising language, referring to a non-white individual as a “creature”.’
Mr Michael is accused of ‘subjecting’ Rudakubana to ‘degrading treatment’ by using that description.
The former marine has now described his football coaching and prevention from any other working with children as ‘mind-boggling’.
He told the Telegraph: ‘Rudakubana has to be one of the most evil people on the planet – even the judge called him evil.
‘And yet if I label him a “creature” I am deemed not fit to work with kids.
‘If I am a danger to children for dehumanising Axel Rudakubana, then there is something very, very wrong with this system. It is mind-boggling.’
His case is being supported by the Free Speech Union campaign group, whose chairman Lord Young said: ‘Why are the authorities in Rhondda protecting the reputation of a child murderer at the expense of a decorated ex-serviceman who risked his life to defend our country?
‘The fact that Rudakubana was “non-white” is irrelevant. Would it have been OK to call him a “creature” if he was white?’
The Daily Mail has contacted Cwm Taf Morgannwg Safeguarding Board for comment.
A spokesperson has previously said: ‘The Safeguarding Board and its multi-agency partners take its responsibilities in respect of safeguarding very seriously.
‘It would be inappropriate for the board or its partners to comment any further at this time.’
Safeguarding boards were established in 2004 following the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham by school caretaker Ian Huntley.
In a letter to Mr Michael, the Cwm Taf Morgannwg board said it was ‘obliged’ to hold a meeting and the concern had been ‘substantiated’ by unanimous agreement.
Mr Michael said it was a ‘horrible feeling’ telling people he had been banned from coaching his daughter’s football team as he felt they might assume he was a ‘pervert’ or had been ‘violent to children’.
He said he had gone public with the ruling against him to ensure those in his community in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales, did not mistake him for a paedophile.
Mr Michael previously coached both his daughter’s under-15s football side and another team she played at on a voluntary basis, for one day a week.
He also took over the Penygraig Boys and Girls Club a decade ago in his home town amid fears it could shut down.
His trial took place earlier this year at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court, which heard how he had been an apprentice footballer with Manchester United, Oxford United, and Cardiff City before joining the Royal Marines.
He served in Iraq in 2003 before later working in private security in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer in 2014.
Mr Michael, who insists that he is not racist, had his legal fees paid by the Free Speech Union, who also arranged for him to be represented by solicitor Luke Gittos and barrister Adam King and are backing his latest appeal.
Prosecutors claimed at the trial his language was ‘unrelentingly negative’ towards migrants, but Mr King said it was ‘beyond obvious’ that Mr Michael was not referring to all migrants but only violent ones in his monologue.
Mr Michael was acquitted on February 4 by a jury at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court who unanimously cleared him of the charge.
