September 4 – A lifelong Swansea City fan who gave a Nazi salute to Tottenham Hotspur supporters has been branded a “racist oaf” by a judge and been banned from matches for three years.
Leighton Thomas (pictured) was seen mimicking a Hitler salute despite claiming he was just waving to family members in the stand and indicating he was going for a cigarette or a drink.
The incident happened at a game in April 2017 which saw the London club, which has a long association with the Jewish community, come from 1-0 down to equalise in the 88th minute – before scoring two more goals in injury time.
Johnson was sentenced after he was found guilty of causing racially aggravated alarm or distress.
During Johnson’s trial, the jury was told that moments after Spurs scored their third goal, the defendant got up from his seat near the directors’ boxes at the Liberty stadium and headed for the exit, and then “raised his left arm and put his fingers across his lip to mimic a moustache” as he walked towards the Tottenham directors.
The court previously heard that the chairman of Tottenham Hotspur football club, a number of its directors, and a “significant proportion” of its fans were of Jewish descent and that as a football fan Johnson was well aware of that fact when he “performed a Nazi or Hitler salute”.
Spurs director Jon Reuben, who is Jewish, caught the incident on his mobile phone and subsequently emailed the video clip to Swansea City, who identified Johnson as the offender before passing the footage to police.
During sentencing, Judge Paul Thomas QC described the defendant’s account as laughable. “Your behaviour was that of a racist oaf and you made a clown of yourself giving evidence during your trial,” he said.
Johnson was also ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work and pay £1,085 in costs.
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