War veteran banned from coaching football team after calling Southport killer ‘creature’
A war veteran cleared of inciting hatred says he was banned from coaching after calling the Southport child killer a “creature”.
A veteran called the Southport killer a ‘creature’ (Image: Getty)
An Iraq War veteran says he has been blocked from coaching his daughter’s youth football team after describing the Southport child murderer as a “creature” in a social media video, despite being cleared in court of inciting racial hatred.
Jamie Michael, 47, from Penygraig in south Wales, posted a 12-minute Facebook video in the days following Axel Rudakubana’s attack on a Taylor Swift–themed children’s dance class in Southport on July 29 last year. The former Royal Marine was later charged with using inflammatory language, but jurors at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court took just 17 minutes to unanimously acquit him in February.
The incident claimed the lives of three young girls (Image: Getty)
Although he avoided conviction, Michael said the fallout from the case continues.
Documents linked to a legal action he has launched against his local authority state he used “dehumanising language” by referring to Rudakubana as a “creature”.
The board argued this contributed to a “substantiated” safeguarding concern, which ultimately led the Football Association of Wales to bar him from volunteering with his daughter’s team.
Rudakubana was jailed for a minimum of 52 years for murdering Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar, and for attempting to kill eight other children and two adults.
In his Facebook post, seen thousands of times, Michael expressed anger over the killings and unrest across the country, acknowledging since that his wording had been “clumsy”.
Michael said he was shocked when he was informed, less than two weeks after being acquitted, that he was no longer considered suitable to work with children.
“It’s mind-boggling,” he told the Telegraph. “The judge called Rudakubana evil. Yet calling him a ‘creature’ makes me unfit to coach kids? If that makes me a danger to children, then something is very wrong.”
The Free Speech Union, which funded his defence, is now supporting his civil claim for £25,000 in damages.
Its chairman, Lord Young, criticised the safeguarding board, questioning why “the reputation of a child murderer” was being prioritised over that of an ex-serviceman.
Cwm Taf Morgannwg Safeguarding Board said it takes its responsibilities “very seriously” but declined to comment further.
Michael said he went public so that people in his community would not wrongly assume he posed a risk to children, insisting he is not racist and that his criticism was directed solely at violent offenders.
