Burnley sack fan over ‘White Lives Matter’ banner stunt
The Burnley ‘fan’ behind the ‘White Lives Matter’ banner that flew over the Etihad Stadium on Monday night has been sacked.
According to various reports, Jake Hepple has been removed from his position as a welder by employers Paradigm Precision in Lancashire because of the incident.
The Sun reported that Hepple had travelled to the Manchester City fixture to live-stream the plane towing the offensive message, before positing it to his social media accounts.
In the aftermath of the episode, Hepple posted on Facebook: “I’d like to take this time to apologise .. TO ABSOLUTELY F ** NOBODY! It’s now apparently racist to say white lives matter.”
Hepple’s Facebook profile also showed him posing for a selfie with co-founder of the English Defence League Tommy Robinson and contained a number of racist posts.
He explained to the Daily Mail: “I’m not racist. I know people are trying to make out to be one but I’m not. I’ve got lots of Black and Asian friends and this banner was actually inspired by the Black Lives Movement.
“We were not trying to offend the movement or black people. I believe that it’s also important to acknowledge that white lives matter too. That’s all we were trying to say.”
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The so-called supporter’s girlfriend, Megan Rambadt, has also been dismissed from her job at Solace Foot Health and Reflexology after her racist musings on social media were uncovered.