A former Liberal Democrat mayor of the Harrogate borough posted a torrent of vile antisemitic tweets likely to stir up racial hatred over a month-long period, a jury has found.

Pat Marsh, 78, who was a North Yorkshire county councillor and Lib Dem group leader for Harrogate and Knaresborough, posted or re-posted the inflammatory tweets on her X account labelling Jews as “evil” and “a disgrace to this world”, York Crown Court heard.

She was charged with posting or distributing written online material which was likely to stir up racial hatred between January 21 and February 19, 2024.

Due to Marsh’s mental and physical incapacity, she was found to be unfit to give evidence this week following consultation with two psychiatrists acting on behalf of the prosecution and defence.

Marsh, of Harrogate Road, Knaresborough, wasn’t required to attend the ‘trial of the facts’, which started yesterday (August 20).

A trial of the facts is where a jury, in the absence of the defendant, is asked to decide if she did the act alleged.

Absolute discharge

Today (August 21), the jury found that Marsh did the act alleged, namely posted or distributed written online material likely to sit up racial hatred.

Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, said that, due to the ex-councillor’s current mental and physical condition, “the only option” was to give her an absolute discharge, which meant that she wouldn’t be punished for the offence.

Prosecutor Ashleigh Metcalfe said the veteran former politician - who had served on the county council as its representative for the Stray, Woodlands and Hookstone division for over 30 years and was once Harrogate’s mayor - had posted and re-posted comments on X, formerly known as Twitter, that were insulting, abusive and threatening to “Jewish people around the world”.

The catalyst for Marsh’s explosive flurry of tweets, thought to be in their hundreds, was evidently the war in Gaza and the Israeli Defence Force’s raids on the strip following the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel in 2023.

Ms Metcalfe said that in one post on Marsh’s Twitter page, Jewish people were derided as a “so-called religious group who are evil”.

The post also labelled the Jews as “a disgrace to the world” who “will pay”.

Ms Metcalfe said that by “conflating” the actions of the Israeli government during the war in Gaza with “an entire religious community”, the inflammatory posts inferred that Jewish people including “Rabbis and Holocaust survivors” were somehow complicit in genocide.

“We say it is racism and bigotry in the extreme,” she added.

“We say it is plainly insulting and abusive.”

Public complaints

She said the investigation into Marsh’s tweets was sparked by complaints from four members of the public who either saw the posts on X or read reports about the online scandal on the Stray Ferret’s news site.

One of those complainants, a man who was named in court, went into Harrogate Police Station on February 19, 2024. He complained about a social-media post he had seen on the then councillor’s X page.

The post in question, uploaded to Marsh’s X account on January 22, 2024, read: “I hope you Jews feel proud of yourselves. Remember what happened to you during the Second World War. Why would you do the same?”

Another post on February 18, which attracted 875 views, read: “The whole world is silent. The Jews will pay for that.”

“Many of the posts (Marsh) posted on X attracted hundreds of views,” added Ms Metcalfe.

“Much of the comment she posted or re-posted concerns events in Gaza and was plainly anti-Israeli. Some of the comments we say were antisemitic. Some of the posts contained graphic images.”

Detective Constable Kirsty Greenbank, the Harrogate-based police officer who led the investigation for North Yorkshire Police, said that the first member of the public to complain about Marsh’s tweets came into Harrogate Police Station in February 2024 and showed officers a screenshot of the councillor’s Twitter page.

It showed a series of posts including one which read: “This is what you Jews are doing. I hope you feel proud of yourselves. You are a disgrace to this world. For a religious group, you are evil.”

The officer said that a husband and wife also made a complaint the following day after calling police. The female complainant said they saw the posts on X after reading a report in the Stray Ferret.

She said the Twitter posts made her “feel scared”.

A fourth member of the public, another named man, emailed a complaint to Harrogate Police on February 21, 2024.

He said he felt “saddened” by one of the posts he had seen on Marsh’s Twitter page.  

Electronic devices seized

Ms Metcalfe said that this post appeared to have been written by someone else and re-posted by the then councillor.

Police sent an officer to arrest Marsh at her home in Knaresborough where she invited the police constable into her living room.

The officer saw six electronic devices on her sofa and seized them for forensic analysis. They included several mobiles and three laptops.

Marsh was taken into Harrogate Police Station for questioning in the presence of a solicitor but exercised her right to silence.

The police forensics unit found three X accounts on one of Marsh’s laptops. The analysis revealed numerous re-posts by Marsh of comments about “the people of Israel and the Jewish faith” which had already hit national headlines.

“(There were) multiple hundreds of views of these tweets,” said Ms Metcalfe.

One post, sent in February 2024 vis-à-vis the war in Gaza, read: “This is atrocious and a war crime. No wonder people are becoming anti-Jewish.”

When Ms Metcalfe asked DC Greenbank if “some of the posts were anti-Israeli and some (were) anti-Jewish, the officer replied: “Yes.”

When asked if the screenshot of Marsh’s Twitter page showed that the posts in question “conflated the Jewish people as a whole with the activities of the Israeli government”, the officer replied: “Yes.”

Resigned after 30 years

Marsh resigned her seat on North Yorkshire Council in February 2024 after publishing the antisemitic tweets after serving on the council for more than three decades. She was for many years the Liberal Democrat leader in Harrogate and Knaresborough.

But her tenure ended suddenly after the Twitter storm surrounding posts which described Jewish people as "horrendous" and claiming they "fund politics throughout the world".

The Liberal Democrats suspended her, but at the time she denied the comments were antisemitic and pledged to continue as an independent councillor.

She claimed her tweets were prompted by concern about the deaths of thousands of children in Gaza.

Her page on the council's website disappeared and a council spokesperson confirmed that Marsh had resigned which would bring about a by-election.

At the time, local Lib Dem representatives said they had not seen the messages and the matter was being dealt with by the party's national press office.

A spokesperson for the party said at the time that the matter was being dealt with by an independent panel.