Northampton landscaper abused over Waterloo Station 'racism' video

Jamie Turner said his phone "lit up like a Christmas tree" after he was wrongly identified as one of the men in the video

A man mistakenly accused on social media of a racially aggravated incident after footage was posted online says he has received "incessant" abuse.

Jamie Turner, 34, of Northampton, was wrongly identified as one of a group of men shouting at pro-Palestinian protesters at Waterloo Station, London.

He said his phone "lit up like a Christmas tree" with "incessant calls, voicemails and death threats".

Northamptonshire Police said it was investigating the messages.

After footage of the Waterloo incident was posted on X (formerly Twitter) and went viral, British Transport Police appealed for information to trace some of the individuals concerned.

Three men have since been arrested in connection with the incident.

But hordes of online sleuths had already set to work.

'Really scary'

"Someone claimed to have found one of the guys in the video, then posted a link to my website on Twitter, which includes my telephone number and address," said Mr Turner, who runs JT Landscape Services with his wife, Hattie.

It appears they had confused his company with another of a similar name.

"Afterwards I began to get a lot of verbal abuse on calls, then voicemails, and hundreds of messages every hour on WhatsApp," he said.

"I've had people quoting my home address and threatening to chop me up or kill my family, which is really scary because we have two young children."

• Listen: Northampton gardener wrongly accused of 'racism'

The BBC has seen dozens of messages posted under false names such as "Palestine Hamas" which accuse Mr Turner of being "racist", "nasty" and "guilty".

One reads "you're going to get what's coming to ya".

Another person posted a fake one-star Google review of his company with the comment "right wing owner abusing people in public".

Jamie and Hattie Turner, pictured with their children, have left home while they wait for online abuse to die down

Mrs Turner, 30, said: "We set up this business in 2019 and carried it through the pandemic because we love what we do, and then this happens and our name's thrown in the mud.

"My three-year-old is very much aware what's been happening - it's really frightening how easily people find information and become so nasty.

"We don't condone anything that happened in the video; it's vile. But people shouldn't be sharing information like this and going after other families' livelihoods."

The Turner family have left home for a few days while the abuse dies down.

A spokesperson for Northamptonshire Police said officers visited Mr Turner on Sunday "to provide safety advice and take details of the threats made in order to investigate them".

They added: "In the meantime, we would strongly encourage people not to send threatening or abusive messages to anyone, as in doing so you may be committing a crime."