Police Scotland charge man over alleged online racist abuse of Everton’s Yannick Bolasie

Police in Scotland have charged a man in connection to an allegation of racially-aggravated online abuse aimed at Everton winger Yannick Bolasie.

Bolasie, who is currently on loan at Championship side Middlesbrough, shared an unsavoury screenshot on social media of a direct message he received on Instagram last week.

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A 22-year-old has since been charged in relation to the incident and was due to appear at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on Wednesday following his arrest.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "A 22-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with a racially aggravated comment posted online.

"He is expected to appear at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on Wednesday, 17 March, 2021."

The individual in question messaged Bolasie simply with the word 'n*****', an insulting and derogatory racial slur.

Accompanied with the message, Bolasie responded on Twitter saying: "Something seriously wrong with people [rat emoji]...Keyboard warriors.

"Still yet to meet a person who had this energy when they saw me."

Bolasie, 31, turned down a move to CSKA Moscow in the summer of 2019 over fear of racist abuse while playing in Russia.

He is the latest in a long line of footballers to have suffered racial abuse on social media, with Arsenal's Eddie Nketiah and Chelsea full-back Reece James – as well as sister Lauren - among the victims.

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In a strongly worded statement issued to talkSPORT, Nigel James - father of Reece and Lauren - said: “It is the government, and the government alone, that can put the legislation in place to deter people from sending racist abuse online.

“These companies should be fined a percentage of their profits if there are continued abusive messages arising on their platform.

“Board members of these companies should face negligence charges if abuse continues, while guilty parties should face either being automatically sent to youth offender centres or prison for a short period [of time] and be issued with fines/have their salaries deducted.

“If all of these things were implemented it will change people’s behaviour online; even though it won’t stop racism itself in society.”

Despite a growing issue with racist abuse on the social media platform, Twitter confirmed last month they will not end the practice of allowing people to post from anonymous accounts.

Premier League clubs were taken aback after being notified that the monkey emoji wasn’t deemed a violation of Twitter’s rules – despite clearly being used in a hateful manner.