A student was in police custody Sunday night after allegedly making sick comments about Fabrice Muamba, the Premier League footballer left fighting for his life after collapsing during a game.
Liam Stacey, 21, is accused of making offensive remarks on Twitter about the Bolton Wanderers player, who Sunday night remained in a critical condition on a life support machine after suffering a cardiac arrest.
The Swansea University student is alleged to have tweeted ‘LOL [Laugh out loud]. **** Muamba. He’s dead!!! #haha’.
When other users objected, he is said to have launched a volley of vile racist and sexist abuse, which is too offensive to print.
Later, the biology undergraduate, originally from Pontypridd, South Wales, posted tweets saying the remarks were not his and insisting he was not a racist. He claimed his account had been hacked and he hadn’t had access to his phone at the time the remarks were made. However, he was arrested by South Wales police officers in the early hours of Sunday morning.
His arrest is the latest proof that police are prepared to act against so-called internet trolls who put offensive material on social networking sites, often because they get a thrill out of provoking others.
Sunday night Muamba, 23, was in a medically induced coma at the London Chest Hospital in Bethnal Green, East London, with family and friends at his bedside. His fiancee, Shauna, who is mother to his three-year-old son, Joshua, tweeted: ‘God is in control. Please keep [Fabrice] in your prayers.’
The 27-year-old, who runs a successful Caribbean food catering business and got engaged to the footballer on Valentine’s Day, later added: ‘Please keep praying for [Fabrice] – it’s really helping, I can feel it. xx’
England under-21 international Muamba, who fled to Britain as a boy from war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, fell face down on the turf shortly before half time during the televised FA Cup quarter-final match in London against Tottenham Hotspur.
With no apparent reason for his fall, horrified team mates rushed to his aid and gestured for paramedics, who spent several minutes trying to resuscitate him, including using a defibrillator to try to restart his heart, in front of a packed crowd of 36 000 fans at 6.11pm.
However, it wasn’t until just before 8pm, after ‘prolonged’ attempts at resuscitation, that his heart was eventually kick-started as he arrived at the hospital.
Following Muamba’s collapse, the match was abandoned with the score at 1-1. There was no response on Sunday at the terraced house in Swansea where Everton fan Stacey, a cricketer and keen rugby fan, is believed to live with several other male students – and which appeared to have had an egg thrown at one of the upstairs windows.
His Bebo account, which hasn’t been updated for three years, lists his hates as ‘black music’ and he also claims to be ‘scared’ of illegal immigrants.
Former England footballer Stan Collymore, who has reported other Twitter users to police for abuse in the past, told Stacey: ‘Your sick tweets have been passed on to the police. Some people believe freedom of speech means you can say anything to anyone. You can’t. The laws of the land regarding hate speech is quite clear.’
Collymore is one of a string of celebrities targeted with abuse on the social networking site.
Matt Lucas was last month driven to close down his Twitter account after a 16-year-old tweeted a joke about the death of the comedian’s former partner, Kevin McGee, who was discovered hanged in 2009.
On Sunday messages of support for Muamba, who started his career at Arsenal and has also played for Birmingham City, flooded in from players, clubs and fans.
Bolton manager Owen Coyle and chairman Phil Gartside visited the player in hospital, as did close friends Johan Djourou, of Arsenal, and Spurs striker Jermain Defoe.
Coyle said later: ‘It’s great to be talented at football and everything but it’s more important to be a genuinely nice person and everybody recognises Fabrice is that.
‘Our concern is Fabrice and Fabrice only and that’s what our energy is going into – hopefully for a happy outcome. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves but if he could pull through it would be marvellous.’
Bolton’s Premier League game at Aston Villa, which was scheduled to take place on Tuesday, has been postponed as a mark of respect. – Daily Mail