Council employee admits making 'bomb' threats against Travellers

An Aberdeen City Council employee has admitted posting threatening and abusive comments about travellers on a social networking site.

Neil Kerr admitted saying that “petrol bombs and baseball bats” should have been used to remove Travellers from a north-east park.

Kerr, a catering supervisor at the council-run Cellar Cafe, made the comment on his own Facebook page in February last year.

Other comments were also left by Kerr, of Tern Court, Newtonhill, near Aberdeen, on a Facebook page entitled 'Get Travellers Out of Stonehaven' (GTOS).

The GTOS page attracted 360 supporters by the time it was taken offline and was set up after a group of six caravans – understood to be from England – arrived at the town’s Baird Park, with several vans, a lorry and diggers.

The illegal encampment expanded in size with almost a dozen caravans taking up most of the road by the time Aberdeenshire Council evicted the group in early March.

On his own Facebook page, Kerr said “baseball bats and petrol bombs” should be used to remove Travellers from Stonehaven.

Kerr also referred to travellers as “pikeys” on the GTOS site and suggested people should unite in peaceful protest “but allow room for the situation to change” in an effort to remove them from the town.

The 25-year-old later claimed the comments had been made “in the heat of the moment”.

Kerr pleaded guilty to a charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner which may have caused alarm to others at Stonehaven Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

The court heard that Kerr had one previous conviction relating to a racially aggravated comment made in an Aberdeen nightclub.

His plea comes less than a month after 65-year-old Susanne Elliott was fined for posting abusive comments on the GTOS page.

The pensioner, who was living in Royal Deeside at the time but has now moved to Sussex, posted abusive comments branding Travellers "scum" and "filth" on the social networking site.

Kerr will be sentenced in March.