A teacher who was branded ‘Islamophobic’ has revealed it is now ‘very difficult to find another job’ after two Facebook friends reported him for a post criticising Lucy Connolly’s prison sentence.
Simon Pearson, a former employee of Preston College, was subject to an internal investigation following his comment that Connolly ‘should not have been jailed’.
Connolly, the wife of a Conservative councillor, had been handed a 31-month sentence in October after pleading guilty to a charge of inciting racial hatred in a social media post following last year’s Southport riots.
The post, which the 42-year-old later deleted, said: ‘Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the b******* for all I care… if that makes me racist so be it.’
In his online comment, Mr Pearson described Connolly’s words as ‘obviously wrong’, but said he believed her prison sentence was a ‘two tier policy from the top down’.
Speaking to GB News, the 56-year-old this evening said he ‘very much’ agreed his free speech had been ‘violated’.
Mr Pearson explained: ‘I’ve served at Preston College for 20 years – I’ve served my students faithfully, I’ve been defending their rights as well from whatever race, from whatever religion.
‘I’ve demonstrated to the college as well that they have no basis in their actions and unfortunately they dismissed me.’
The teacher said he had stated Connolly’s post was ‘appalling’ and ‘indefensible’ – but also that she had deleted it soon after and ‘obviously didn’t mean what she said’.
Mr Pearson added: ‘Policing social media is awful for our country – it has been for me; being labelled Islamophobic has made it very difficult for me to find another job. And it’s not true.
‘You should be able to express what you really believe – what is of concern in society – without fear of recrimination.’
He clarified it had not been his Union that made the report but in fact ‘two people who were on my Facebook friends (list)’.
‘They were the ones who’d told the Union what I’d written and through the Union they brought that to the college,’ he said.
Mr Pearson concluded: ‘It’s a travesty really and that’s why I’m fighting to clear my name.’
An internal investigation was launched following a complaint submitted by a Muslim representative of the National Education Union (NEU) at the school who alleged that the post was ‘Islamophobic’ and ‘racially discriminatory’.
Mr Pearson said that following the concern, he apologised and also claimed to have provided evidence of his support for both Muslim students and asylum seekers.
However, the college’s investigation deemed the posts a violation of its policies, damaging of professional relationships and likely to bring the college’s reputation into disrepute.
Mr Pearson previously said he had been left ‘appalled’ by the decision, particularly given his long-standing commitment to helping support and educate students ‘from all walks of life’.
Describing his dismissal as a ‘grave injustice’, he told The Telegraph: ‘As soon as I was branded “Islamophobic” for expressing concern about violent crime, I became a marked man.
‘It was clear that I had to be found guilty by the college, it became a witch hunt, and I had to be eliminated no matter what.’
Mr Pearson, who has now launched legal action at an employment tribunal, has claimed wrongful dismissal, unfair dismissal, harassment and discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.
Lord Young of Acton, founder of the Free Speech Union, told the Daily Mail he was ‘shocked’ by the decision to sack Mr Pearson, criticising the NEU (National Education Union) for ‘siding with the bosses rather than the workers when it comes to breaches of workplace speech codes’.
It comes after Connolly, of Northampton, was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court in October and imprisoned at HMP Drake Hall, Staffordshire after admitting to making her ‘racist’ post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The 42-year-old former childminder, wife of Conservative councillor Ray Connolly, lost her 19-month-old son, Harry, in 2011.
With around 9,000 followers on X at the time, Connolly’s message was reposted 940 times and viewed 310,000 times before she deleted it around three and a half hours later.
The mother-of-one was arrested on August 6 last year, by which point she had deleted her social media account. But other messages which included other condemning remarks were uncovered by officers who seized her phone.
Her X post was made just hours after killer Axel Rudakubana murdered three young girls and attempted to murder 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29, sparking nationwide unrest.
A number of public figures and politicians have spoken out since Connolly was handed her sentence, claiming that she is a victim of ‘two-tier justice’.
Connolly’s husband, Raymond, a former West Northamptonshire Conservative councillor, said on the day she lost her appeal: ‘Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood says she will release 40,000 prisoners, some of them dangerous men on tag.
‘Lucy has not been allowed out on tag and she has been denied leave to see our child who is struggling.
‘The court had the opportunity to reduce her cruelly long and disproportionate sentence, but they refused. That feels like two-tier justice.’
Adelle Healy, 42, who has been friends with Connolly for nine years, previously told the Daily Mail: ‘Lucy was horrified and heartbroken that three little girls had been murdered. She let her emotions take over and wrote something that she definitely shouldn’t have done but she has paid a very dear price.
‘She should not be behind bars for a tweet. I think it’s ludicrous that it’s got to this point.’
In May, Connolly lost an appeal to shorten her 31-month sentence despite telling the Court of Appeal in London she ‘never’ intended to incite violence and did not realise that pleading guilty would mean she accepted that she had.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, The Daily Mail revealed a friend of Connolly had shared a post to X saying she believed the convict would be ‘with a glass of Whispering Angel in-hand’ this time next month.
It is understood Connolly will be released on August 21.
The National Education Union said in a statement: ‘The management of Preston College reached a decision to dismiss the teacher following disciplinary procedures.
‘The NEU was not directly involved in these processes and it will be for the Employment Tribunal to consider the fairness of the dismissal if and when the claim reaches a hearing.’
Preston College added: ‘Upon receipt of complaints from a number of our staff, an internal investigation was undertaken into whether some of Mr Pearson’s social media posts were a breach of the College’s Staff Behaviour Code and Values.
‘Following an investigation and subsequent disciplinary process, Mr Pearson was dismissed from his employment at the College.’
