THE WORLD’S richest man Elon Musk has said the Cumbrian judge who jailed a Sellafield worker for publishing 'racist' content on Facebook 'is the one who should be arrested!'

Following the News & Star’s story about 51-year-old Lee Joseph Dunn, jailed on Monday for his “grossly offensive” posts, the billionaire owner of X reacted to an online commentator who said the case showed Britain was now an “Orwellian dystopia.”

Musk - who has more than 194 million followers on X - tweeted: “The judge is the one who should be arrested!”

The post has come just days after South Lakes MP Tim Farron hit out at Musk over his X posts about the riots in the UK, describing the billionaire as an "utter berk."

Reacting to the tweet about a Carlisle judge, Mr Farron said: "Elon Musk is a man with an awful lot of power but with no responsibility.

"Ninety nine per cent of the people in Cumbria will be united on this, the view that thugs should be punished for being thugs and that people who incite thugs online are as bad as the thugs themselves."

Mr Farron said such online interventions from Musk were both "ridiculous and dangerous."

He added: "In a free society, freedom has to go in every direction; and that means that people have to be free from the consequences of hatred being incited by people seeking to point the finger at one particular group."

Last week saw the Carlisle-based district judge who was Musk's target jail 31-year-old Maryport man Billy Thompson, of Victory Crescent, Maryport, for a Facebook post he published in reaction to police efforts to prevent public disorder in Carlisle.

The message included emojis of both an ethnic minority person and a gun.

Dunn’s message - a retweet of somebody else's content - included a series of images. The first showed a group of men, Asian in appearance, at Egremont crab fair 2025, with the caption: “Coming to a town near you.”

The second also showed a group of men, also Asian in appearance, leaving a boat on a Whitehaven beach with the caption: “When it’s on your turf, then what?”

A final image showed a group of men, again Asian in appearance, wielding knives in front of the Palace of Westminster and a crying white child in a Union flag T-shirt. The caption had the message: “Coming to a town near you.”

The jailing of both Dunn and Thompson (pictured below) triggered a huge online debate, with many readers saying the crackdown was necessary to deter further disorder. Some others expressed concern about "free speech".

(Image: Cumbria Police photos)  

The district judge said of Thompson’s offending that it had to be viewed in the context of the recent civil unrest across the UK. He said he had “no doubt” that Thompson’s post was connected to that wider picture.

The judge told Thompson: “I don’t accept that your comments and the emojis that you posted were directed at the police. I’ve read in the case summary of the comments you made on arrest which clearly demonstrate to me that there was a racial element to the messaging and the posting of these emojis.

“That has to be reflected in the sentence... there to be a deterrent element in the sentence that I impose, because this sort of behaviour has to stop.

“It encourages others to behave in a similar way and ultimately it leads to the sorts of problems on the streets that we’ve been seeing in so many places up and down this country. This offence is serious enough for custody.”

In a statement issued in the wake of the Dunn case, the CPS said that he had admitted distributing the images and captions on social media, claiming he was “just following the herd”.

But when he saw the comments under what he posted, he knew it was a mistake and posted an apology message, deleting the previous messages, said the statement.

Commenting after the case concluded, Janet Potter, deputy chief crown prosecutor for CPS North West said: “This conviction should be a stark reminder to so-called keyboard warriors: online actions have consequences. 

“The Crown Prosecution Service has worked around the clock to ensure those involved in any way, in the current disorder are hauled before the courts as quickly as possible. This type of social media offending will not be tolerated.

"Those who take part in online offences will be brought to justice swiftly.”

(Image: PA photo by Owen Huphreys)

Former Carlisle police officer David Morton said he agreed with the judicial crackdown given the extent of recent public disorder following the killing of three young girls in Southport.

Riots that erupted in several areas of the UK - including in Liverpool, Aldershot, Leeds, and Middlesbrough - were linked at an early stage to online misinformation about the suspect.

READ MORE: Tim Farron blasts 'utter berk' Elon Musk over X posts on UK riots

“The authorities need to take strong action,” said Mr Morton.

He said the kind of inflammatory and racist online commentary that is leading to prosecutions had to be dealt with robustly. He added: “They should be prosecuted. There’s been a link between this kind of online content and disorder.”

Musk has faced criticism for his handling of misinformation on his X social media site, formerly Twitter, though he maintains he is a champion of free speech.

In a 2022 post, he said: “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated."

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has praised the swift police and judicial response to people convicted of involvement in the disorder, either directly or online by stoking up hatred.

He said of the rapid processing of prosecutions: "That should send a very powerful message to anybody involved, either directly or online, that you are likely to be dealt with within a week. Nobody, but nobody, should be involved themselves in this disorder."

Investigations after the Southport killings showed a clear link between the riots and escalating levels of disorder. 

Within hours of the tragedy in Southport on July 29, false news about the attacker began to circulate on platforms such as X, fuelling anger. It was falsely claimed the alleged killer had arrived in the country on a dinghy in 2023.

Some online commentators posted that the suspect was a Muslim, and provided an incorrect name. Merseyside Police later confirmed the suspect was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents and had no links to Islam.