A Liverpool man falsely accused another of being a "child molester" in a shocking Facebook post.
William Montgomery Coughlin, 53, of Tithebarn Street, Liverpool, admitted an offence under section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 when he appeared at Liverpool Magistrates' Court on Friday, 4th September 2020.
The maximum penalty for such an offence is 26 weeks' custody and/or an unlimited fine on summary conviction; 2 years' custody and/or an unlimited fine on conviction on indictment.
Coughlin owns Kitty's Showbar on Tithebarn Street, where he performs as drag queen Kitty Litter.
He previously (unsuccessfully) stood as a Conservative candidate in the Blackpool Borough Council elections of 2015, achieving 17.6 percent of the Talbot ward's vote.
The court heard that the injured party, Paul Hession, posted the link to an Independent article about Coughlin on his social media profile on 29th November 2019. The article referenced Coughlin's election candidature.
Coughlin was verbally abused and Kitty's Showbar vandalised in the days that followed.
Andrew Page, prosecuting, said that the post seemed to "enrage" Coughlin, who responded by uploading an offensive video to his Facebook profile on 1st December 2019.
In the video Coughlin falsely accused Mr Hession of being a "child molester".
Coughlin added: "He interferes with young lads and leaves presents in their bloodstream".
In his victim impact statement, Mr Hession said he believed that comment referred to an untrue and disproved allegation that he had infected someone with HIV back in 2013.
Mr Hession said the comment was "extremely damaging" and could result in him being "ostracised from the gay community".
Lawrence Lee, mitigating, explained Coughlin pleaded guilty at the first opportunity to sending malicious communication and has no previous convictions.
He asked District Judge Andrew Shaw to bear in mind "the pure desperation my client felt before he posted these unfortunate entries" when sentencing.
Coughlin was sentenced to a 12-month community order, with up to 12 days' rehabilitation activity requirement.
He was fined £100 and ordered to pay £100 compensation, £85 towards prosecution costs and £90 victim surcharge.
Judge Shaw also made a restraining order prohibiting Coughlin from contacting Mr Hession by any means whatsoever for a period of 3 years.
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