An Irishman who trolled DUP leader Arlene Foster comparing her to a “dirty hooker” and telling her to “kill herself” has been jailed in the UK for 22 months.
Dubliner Gerard Traynor was arrested in January after he posted a string of offensive and racist insults on
Facebook.
He pleaded guilty to 16 counts of sending threatening or grossly offensive malicious communications.
The 53-year-old doctor’s son targeted Mrs Foster and also sent vile abuse to the UK’s new Home Secretary Priti Patel.
Traynor told the former North’s First Minister to kill herself calling for an “Armenian genocide of unionists and the killing of all Orange people”.
His hate-filled posts added: “Don’t believe we have DUP in government, 10 DUP.
“Why don’t you kill yourself or IRA blow you up?
“You look like a dirty hooker.”
Mrs Foster told police: “I expected a degree of commentary but these messages overstep the mark of free speech.
“I don’t know the sender, where he was or what his intentions were.
“I was concerned about my own movements, but at least I am in control of my own movements. My concerns were for my family and those around me.”
Prosecutors said the messages sent to Mrs Foster were the subject of “intense media coverage” in the last year because of the Brexit debate.
Dublin-born Traynor, of Sunfield Road, Oldham, Greater Manchester, also launched a vile racist rant at Ms Patel.
On her Facebook page he called made a number of disparaging comments and said “Muslim women should be banned from wearing burkha and show faces”.
In a statement to police Ms Patel said she faced criticism on a daily basis but that some of these messages were “racist, grossly offensive, hugely upsetting and caused me to feel intimidated”.
Traynor’s defence told Manchester Crown Court that he struggles with Asperger’s Syndrome and cited his turbulent early years.
His biological father, a doctor from India, separated from his Irish nursing student mother before she gave birth.
He was placed in an orphanage and later adopted by a family living in Oldham.
Traynor has 11 past convictions for similar offences, including a suspended sentence in 2017 for “racially or religiously aggravated common assault”.
