A 50-year-old man from Amersfoort was sentenced to 120 hours of community service for posting racist, inflammatory, and threatening messages for more than nine months in a public Telegram group, RTV Utrecht reports. Prosecutors described him as a “keyboard warrior.” The man works as a civil servant and said he volunteers at a multicultural center.

The judge said it remains bizarre how easily people can write such statements from behind a keyboard. The defendant said he started posting out of frustration and told the court, “In real life I am very different than on social media.”

According to the Public Prosecution Service, the man used insulting language to discredit various population groups. In the right-wing activist Telegram group “The Tipping Point,” he referred to people with darker skin, Jews, Muslims, Somalis, and refugee groups as “stinking people” and “imported little Negroes.”

He also called for violence against journalists, politicians, police officers, and the mayor of Loosdrecht, where protests against a temporary refugee shelter had escalated into violent riots, vandalism, and arson. He wrote, “Set it on fire. Drive that mayor, journalist, and damn cop out of the city.”

About Prime Minister Rob Jetten and former PvdA/GroenLinks leader Frans Timmermans, he wrote, “Rob J. must die and be buried. As far as I’m concerned, Timmermans can be kicked straight into the gas chambers.”

About CDA leader Henri Bontenbal, he wrote, “Club him. Put a bullet in him. Cover him with earth.” Caroline van der Plas, the BBB leader, was not spared. “Plas must also die and be burned. Also caused too much damage,” he wrote.

The defendant said frustration over a violent incident two years earlier had triggered his behavior. He claimed he had been “out of the blue beaten by a passerby with dark skin color.” He did not file a police report.

“I have said disgusting things. I ended up in a group where a lot more of this kind of thing is said,” he said. He told the court that he got carried away and that posting became an addiction that started and ended his day with.

“When the police showed me everything I had written, I was scared to death,” the man said. He expressed relief that police had stopped him. He added that he had not told his family, friends, or employer about the arrest and court case.

He sent apology letters to Bontenbal and Van der Plas. He also deleted his Telegram chats and canceled his account.

The judge asked whether the man would write things he did not actually believe and pointed to a message in which he had written, “I consider myself a convinced anarchist and proud racist against African natives.”

“I am not a racist. I associate with all kinds of people and also have dark-skinned friends,” the defendant replied.

The prosecutor said the messages incited murder, manslaughter, public violence, and arson. By discrediting groups of people, the man was also guilty of hate speech and discrimination, she argued. The prosecutor sought 120 hours of community service.

The judge imposed that sentence. He told the Amersfoort man that he had gone beyond all boundaries and emphasized the significant impact on the victims. “But you show insight into your mistakes, and I am convinced it will not happen again,” the judge concluded.