Police are warning that online racism will not be tolerated following the arrest of a Wirral man on suspicion of posting racist comments on Facebook.

The 36-year-old from Ellesmere Port is currently on bail after being held earlier this month on suspicion of distributing written material online to stir up racial hatred in relation to offensive comments about the town’s mosque.

It is understood the investigation followed a complaint made to Cheshire Police about a post on a Facebook page.

Today, the force’s assistant chief constable Guy Hindle said: “We are reminding users of social media that this type of behaviour is not acceptable and will not be tolerated by Cheshire Police. It wouldn’t be tolerated on the streets so why should we tolerate it on social media?

“Anyone who chooses to post comments online which are racist, or contain religious hatred will be traced, investigated and where possible, prosecuted. This type of abuse is particularly hurtful to the victims and we want people to be aware that there will be consequences to their actions.”

Cheshire Police said anyone with information on hate crime of any kind should report it to officers on 101.

Liverpool Echo, 24 September 2014

The alleged comments were presumably posted in response to the granting of planning permission for the conversion of a former church into an Islamic centre. Last month an Ellesmere Port resident was convicted of racially or religiously aggravated harassment after he admitted stringing up garden bunting outside the building scrawled with racist slogans and symbols, along with with messages threatening to “burn down the mosque” with Muslims in it.