Man who sent racist social media message to footballer banned from all games

A man who sent a “vile and disgusting” racist message to a professional footballer on social media has been banned from attending any matches for three years, police said.

Harry Dunbar, 20, from Fareham, Hampshire, sent racial slurs via Instagram to Christopher Wreh, following an FA Cup match between Tamworth and Tottenham Hotspur on January 12th.

When interviewed by police, Dunbar admitted sending the message because he had lost a bet, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said.

Police said Wreh had come on as a substitute for Tamworth in the game.

When he later checked his Instagram, he found he had received a message from an account he did not know called “Dunztagram”.

Shocked, he posted a screenshot of the message including the username and then shared it on his social media.

“After an amazing day today, this is the last thing I expected to see when I opened Instagram,” he wrote in the post.

“Nevertheless, thank you for all the support today. Fans were unreal.”

This post was viewed more than 1.7 million times, and Wreh was contacted and sent personal messages by others who identified the account holder as Dunbar, who was living in Hampshire at the time.

Wreh shared this with the dedicated football officer (DFO) for Tamworth at Staffordshire Police, who then passed this on to the UK Football Policing Unit and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary’s dedicated Football Unit.

Dunbar, in Whiteley, was arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated malicious communications and his phone was seized.

Although the Instagram account had been removed, it was identified that he was the owner of the “Dunztagram’ account”.

In interview he then admitted sending the message because he had lost a bet.

Dunbar was sentenced at