Football referee ‘sent abusive Hillsborough tweet’ to daughter of Sheffield stadium disaster victim

A football referee and fireman who allegedly tweeted abuse about the Hillsborough disaster to the daughter of a victim is being investigated by the FA.
Pictures of the Hillsborough football ground shown to the inquests.Pictures of the Hillsborough football ground shown to the inquests.
Pictures of the Hillsborough football ground shown to the inquests.

Craig Langton appeared to send Charlotte Hennessy an unsolicited tweet in response to a conversation she was having about a memorial service next week.

The post from Mr Langton’s account on Saturday read: “Typical scousers and you want us to believe your innocent in all this #blamethepolice”

The message sparked a furious response from Charlotte who was just six-years-old when her dad James, 29, was killed in the 1989 tragedy in Sheffield.

Mr Langton, a Fire Brigades Union (FBU) member and branch representative of 25 years who referees football matches at county level, has since deleted his Twitter account.

The mum-of-three said: “Just so you know – I won’t be letting this go.

“You do not abuse me for the death of my dad like that when I did nothing to you.”

Nottinghamshire FA has confirmed that both it and the national FA are investigating the matter, but said they were unable to add anything further at present.

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue released a statement which said: “In recent days the Service has been made aware of a comment posted by one of our employees via his personal Twitter account, relating to the enquiry into the tragedy that occurred at Hillsborough in 1989.

“This comment is, in no way, representative of Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, and is outside the values and behaviours we expect and promote among our employees.

“The tragic events 26 years ago had a great impact on the people of Nottinghamshire and many local people were, and continue to be, deeply affected by what happened.

“It is therefore only right that we are treating this issue seriously and will be investigating it internally.