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Scottish SNP supporter who told George Galloway "we will get you" found guilty of violent threat

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorAlan McEwen
Published date14 June 2022
Publication titleEdinburghLive (Scotland)
Kyle Forrest, 26, sent the social media message during last year's Scottish Parliament election when Galloway was a candidate

Giving evidence at the trial on Tuesday, Galloway told how the tweet left him fearing he would be "physically attacked".

READMORE: Edinburgh man attacked teenage girl in hotel after she 'made cry for help'

According to the Daily Record, cops were forced to guard him during the voting campaign, he added, while he was concerned there could be a repeat of a "politically motivated" assault he suffered in 2014.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard Forrest sent a message saying: "See you Galloway, we will get you, you understand??"

Forrest told his trial he was being "competitive" not "threatening", and meant the SNP would beat the All For Unity unionist party, founded by Galloway, at the ballot box.

Sheriff Peter McCormack found Forrest guilty of a charge of threatening or abusive behaviour likely to cause a reasonable person fear or alarm by uttering a threat of violence to Galloway over Twitter.

Galloway, who has more than 444,000 Twitter followers, was a candidate in the south of Scotland when he received the tweet on May 3 2021.

He explained the tweet came in the "context" of a 2014 attack on him in London which later saw his assailant jailed for 16 months.

The politician said another man had also been convicted of "thrice threatening to shoot me in the head on Twitter".

Asked by fiscal depute Gillian Coren what he thought of Forrest's tweet, dad-of-six Galloway said: "To be publicly threatened in this way, in the middle of a democratic election campaign, was truly frightening."

Galloway likened "See you Galloway" to the phrase "See you Jimmy". He said anyone using "See you Jimmy" was "not advancing to give you a slice of banoffee pie", adding: "It's threatening language."

Galloway said Forrest was a "complete stranger" but he saw on the accused's Twitter...

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