Mahmudul Choudhury faces losing job after admiting racially-aggravated offence aimed at Jews after sharing photo of former Nazi leader on Facebook
A teacher has been fined after pleading guilty to posting a pro-Hitler image on Facebook.
Mahmudul Choudhury, a 35-year-old father of two, admitted the racially-aggravated offence aimed at Jews.
He shared a photo of the former Nazi leader on Facebook, which had the words "Yes man, you were right. I could have killed all the Jews, but I left some of them to let you know why I was killing them. Share this picture to tell the truth a whole world".
Accompanying the image, Choudhury wrote: "Yes, now we can see why."
The teacher was reported to police by a Jewish student he taught who he had previously added as a friend on Facebook.
Choudhury, from Tower Hamlets, was told at Bromley Magistrates' Court that he might face losing his job over the incident as he is still employed as a teacher.
Magistrates fined him £465 and ordered he pay £85 costs and a £47 victim surcharge.
Lead magistrate Ms Muckell told Choudhury: "Obviously reading through this and the letters, you're a well thought of person and this is going to put your standing down a lot.
"We know you have now given up Facebook, but social media can cause a lot of problems as you found out the hard way.
"We have taken everything into consideration as what has been said and also that you pleaded guilty to this matter at the earliest opportunity.
"We are going to deal with this by way of a financial penalty."
Toyin Odumade, prosecuting, said: "On July 11 of last year Mr Choudhury had posted an image on his Facebook account of Adolf Hitler with the following words written below.
"I could have killed all the Jews, but I left some of them to let you know why I was killing them.
"Mr Choudhury also put a caption above it saying 'Yes, now we can see why'.
"This Facebook poster was seen at the school where Mr Choudhury worked. This pupil is Jewish and it caused him distress so alerted the police.
"This led to Mr Choudhury being arrested and taken to the police station where he was interviewed.
"In this interview, he said he had been on Facebook for four years. He said he kept his Facebook account up-to-date about what was going on in the world and sometimes posted things of freedom of speech and political stuff but never anything racist.
"He was shown the poster on his Facebook account and he confirmed it was his Facebook profile.
"He said he used it to keep up-to-date with what was going on in the world. He said the poster had been sent to him, but he had shared it accidentally.
"When asked about the caption above it he admitted writing it, but stated that he posted the image by accident.
"Later in his interview, he said he could understand why people could find the image offensive but stated that he didn't want to offend anybody and that is was an accident. He was subsequently charged with the offence."
The student who reported Choudhury to the police previously attended a school he no longer teaches at - Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College in New Cross, South East London.
Subhankar Banerjee, defending, told the court: "This is a young man in his mid-30s, a family man of impeccable good character, never been spoken to by the police before who was absolutely adamant he holds no anti-semitic or other extremist views."
Mr Banerjee added that his client took full responsibility for what happened and it is now possible he may lose his job because of it.
Jonathan Sacerdoti, director of communications at the Campaign Against Anti-semitism, said: "Teachers have a special responsibility in our society and shape the minds of our children.
"Mahmudul Choudhury cannot plead ignorance and has been spared any meaningful punishment for spreading a hateful message which helps create the climate in which Jews are currently being killed across Europe.
"We commend the police and CPS for pursuing this case with zero tolerance, but unreservedly condemn this inexplicably lenient sentence and now expect an investigation into how someone who spread Jew hatred online came to be teaching London's children.
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