Man arrested over alleged online racist abuse of Jess Carter at Women’s Euros

A man has been arrested on suspicion of racially abusing Lioness Jess Carter online during the Women’s Euros in July.

The 59-year-old man from Great Harwood was detained by Lancashire Police on Thursday on suspicion of malicious communication. He has now been released under investigation.

Carter had announced she was stepping away from social media after being targeted with “violently aggressive racism” during England’s successful title defence.

Speaking exclusively to ITV News after the tournament, the 27-year-old defender said: “The messages started going from ‘she’s not good enough’ or ‘shouldn’t be playing for England,’ or ‘should be ashamed of her performance’ or whatever, and then it started being about the reason I was rubbish was because I was black.

“I’m not going to go into detail, but it was violently aggressive racism from the minute I stepped on a pitch from the France game.”

Chief Constable Mark Roberts from the UK Football Policing Unit said the messages directed at Carter were “appalling” and commended her for “standing up to this abuse and assisting with our investigation”.

“Nobody should be subjected to such disgusting abuse, and I expect that today’s arrest will be the first of many over the coming months,” he added.

Lancashire Police have released footage of the arrest of the 59-year-old man

Carter had revealed to ITV News Sports Editor Steve Scott that she felt relieved when her white teammates missed penalties during England’s quarter final, because she feared Lauren James would face “astronomical” racial abuse had she been the only player to miss.

She also described how the abuse had affected her and her family.

“It makes you feel really small,” she said. “It makes you feel like you’re not important, that you’re not valuable.

“It makes you second-guess everything that you do – it’s not a nice place to be. It doesn’t make me feel confident going back onto the pitch.”

“My family was so devastated by it as well – and so sad,” Carter said.

The Lioness didn’t intend to publicise her decision to come off social media, but her sister persuaded her to take a stand.

“I didn’t want to initially, but my sister was like, ‘If this was your niece or nephew, if this is Michelle Agyemang or Lauren James or Khiara [Keating], what would you want to do? How would you want to support them?'” she recalled.

“‘Like you wouldn’t want them to be quiet and do it by themselves, so why should you do it?’ I guess if it wasn’t for her, I probably wouldn’t have spoken up about it.”