West Yorkshire Police condemn abusive messages after Ann Maguire's death

The immediate aftermath of the death of Ann Maguire saw a huge number of heartfelt tributes paid to her. Many were from those who knew her personally as colleagues and pupils, and others were from people across the country and further afield. Some were in the form of flowers laid at the school and others were made via news media or through social media websites. Her family highlighted that these were a great source of comfort to them at this very difficult time.

It is therefore truly appalling for someone to behave as Riley did in opportunistically taking advantage of the situation to derive whatever perverse satisfaction he did from posting offensive comments that understandably upset members of the public. We hope his conviction for this offence will serve to remind others that there are consequences for offensive behaviour that constitutes a criminal offence whether it is communicated through social media or other means.