Man who called disaster a ‘great day’ sentenced

A company director who described the Hillsborough disaster as a “great day” on an online football forum has been handed a suspended jail sentence.

Paul O’Neill was convicted of sending malicious communications on a football forum about the 1989 stadium crush, that led to the deaths of 97 Liverpool fans.

Judge Bernadette Baxter handed O’Neill a 13-month sentence, suspended for two years, at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court.

She said the 50-year-old’s actions “were a deliberate act to cause hurt and distress to other people”.

O’Neill, of Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, appeared in the dock wearing a black t-shirt and grey jogging bottoms.

His defence barrister said he had “expressed deep regret” and “recognises that a previous conviction for racially aggravated verbal abuse will not help his case”.

He said O’Neill had been reacting to other posts that mentioned the Munich air disaster, the 1958 runway crash that killed eight of Manchester United’s famous “Busby Babes” team.

Judge Baxter said O’Neill had “used a pseudonym which led you to post the most disgusting comments” and he had “done it quite deliberately knowing the harm it was intended to cause”.

O’Neill was also convicted of failing to surrender after he did not attend court for a trial on 12 August last year.

The trial at Manchester Magistrates’ Court, which magistrates ruled could go ahead without him, heard O’Neill had also called Liverpool fans “vermin”.

Other posts he made in October 2022 including a suggestion that some Liverpool fans were still alive in body bags the next day.

In evidence given at the trial, Hillsborough survivor Marco Catena, 60, from Prenton, Wirral, said O’Neill’s comment was the “most evil Hillsborough-related comment ever”.

“The venom in the messages. I can’t understand it,” he added.

Mr Catena told the court he experienced suicidal thoughts, nightmares and flashbacks after the disaster, and O’Neill’s comments had badly affected his mental health.

Excerpts from a police interview were also heard during the trial, in which O’Neill admitted posting the messages.

He told police: “Yes that was me, I don’t dispute anything.”

O’Neill admitted his comments were “very distasteful” and said he “shouldn’t have got involved”.