A FORMER businessman who sent a racist email to England manager Gareth Southgate has lost his appeal against conviction.

Brian Harold Martin, 57, told York Crown Court he had been unable to find work “because of the circumstances surrounding this case”.

He was convicted at York Magistrates' Court at trial a year ago of sending an offensive electronic communication and appealed the conviction to the higher court.

Kelly Clarke, for the CPS, told the court the email was sent addressed to Mr Southgate on June 4, 2022, at 9.38pm. Earlier that day, England had lost 1 – 0 to Hungary in Hungary in the Nations Cup.

In the email, Martin wrote insulting remarks about black England team members, the Black Lives Matter movement and about the team in general. He also wrote insulting remarks about Mr Southgate personally.

Mr Southgate never received it because his personal assistant intercepted it, said Ms Clarke. The personal assistant was so appalled by its contents, she passed it to the FA’s head of security for teams and high profile figures, who contacted police.

Martin, of Charles Street, Selby, had denied the charge and appealed on the grounds he was exercising his right to free speech.

He represented himself in court and tried to get Mr Southgate to appear as a witness at the appeal hearing saying he wanted to put some questions to him.

But Judge Simon Hickey, sitting with two magistrates, declared the England manager could not give any relevant evidence and heard the case without him.

In the witness box, Martin accepted that he had sent the email and accepted the wording of the email as described by the prosecution.

Asked if he accepted that the words were “grossly offensive” he replied: “No."

He said he had a human right to free speech and that included allowing people to say things that others objected to or found unpleasant.

Giving judgement in the appeal, Judge Hickey said the law forbid anyone to send an email of a “grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character”.

The email was clearly offensive and contained racist language, he said.

He and the two magistrates dismissed the appeal.

Martin, a former businessman, then revealed that he now lives on benefits as he cannot get a job.

The appeal bench decided not to make him pay the £620 prosecution costs of the appeal.

The court heard York Magistrates' Court had ordered him to pay the £620 costs of the trial in the lower court, plus a £120 fine, plus a £95 statutory surcharge.

He had also been ordered to do 200 hours’ unpaid work as part of a two-year community order and banned from contacting the FA in any way for two years from December 2022.

The appeal bench did not change the sentence.