(Image: Newsquest)
A man has been convicted of hanging an abusive flag on the York city walls directed at an MP.
Lee Moran hung the St George’s Cross flag near Walmgate Bar with a message reading: “This one’s for you, Maskill” on September 16, 2025.
Ms Maskell said the flag’s message “caused me to feel distressed with the threat of being a target in political violence”.
The York Central MP also said she feared the flag would “incite a larger group of people”.
She added that it appeared when she was “in a position of vulnerability due to my suspension of the Labour whip” following her rebellion over welfare cuts. Ms Maskell has since had the Labour whip returned.
She said she also found it difficult to tell her elderly parents about the incident.
But the MP said she would have wished for the incident to be dealt with through education, rather than the criminal justice system.
Rachael Maskell, MP for York Central
(Image: UK Parliament/PA Wire)
Ms Maskell was initially called to give evidence in court but was dismissed after the judge said nothing in her statement would be disputed.
Prosecutor Verity Barnes said the flag was displayed from the city walls on September 16, 2025, at a time when flags appeared in York and other UK cities following Operation Raise the Colours.
She said the flagging movement “was patriotic” to some and “intimidating” to others.
Ms Maskell was vocal about calling for flags to be removed from lampposts in York, saying in a statement read in court they had caused division in communities and cost the council £250,000 to remove.
“This has been my position from the start of the movement,” she said.
But Moran, 54, of Brunswick Street, said he disagreed with Ms Maskell, writing on social media a week before he hung the flag from the city walls that the MP was a “traitor to the English people” for suggesting the flags should be removed, the court was told.
Moran said he had deliberately misspelt Ms Maskell’s surname as “Maskill” on the flag but denied he did so in a threatening way, telling the court he was suggesting the MP was a “kill joy” or a “buzzkill”.
He said it was “over the top” for the message to be interpreted as a threat.
“It wasn’t meant to be threatening or abusive in any way,” Moran told the court. “Only cynical people would pull up a death threat from that message.”
York Magistrates' Court
(Image: Frank Dwyer)
Recalling September 16, 2025, Moran told York Magistrates’ Court: “I had made plans to air my disgust at Rachael Maskell’s costs of taking down flags in York city centre.”
He said he was going to “protest with a flag hanging from the bar walls for all to see”.
“I wrote on the flag, ‘this one’s for you, Maskill’,” he said. “This was not meant in a cynical way. It was not meant to be offensive.
“I wrote it to wind up Rachael Maskell, her bubble … her friends, her social circle.”
Flag's message was an 'act of aggression towards the local MP', says judge
But the judge, deputy chief magistrate Tan Ikram, rejected Moran’s reasoning, telling him: “Right minded people would interpret that [the flag’s message] in that it is an act of aggression towards the local MP.
“And I’d say you knew that, and that is why you deliberately chose these words and that’s what your protest was about.”
He also said although Moran claimed the flag was solely directed at Ms Maskell, its location in a busy area meant it would have been seen by many people who could have taken offence with its message.
The judge added: “Nothing I said [during the trial] is bearing any judgement about people’s right to fly flags … I pass no judgement on that.”
Moran was also found guilty of using abusive language towards a University of York student who told the court she tripped on one of the flag poles while walking on the city walls on September 16, 2025.
The student said she felt "very intimidated" after Moran called her abusive names and asked if she was racist before two men “distracted” him, allowing her to leave.
She told the court she initially tried to contact Ms Maskell’s office to warn her about the flag but said she was unable to reach her. The woman said she then phoned police.
Moran claimed the University of York student had deliberately kicked flag poles after seeing the flag and denied calling her abusive names, which the judge rejected.
Mr Ikram said he believed that the University of York student feared she could be at risk of violence after the threats were made.
“I saw your manner in the witness box, you got riled at some of the questions,” the judge told Moran.
Moran was convicted of a further charge of sending an offensive message about Ms Maskell on Facebook after being questioned about the flag raised on September 16, 2025.
The court heard that in the Facebook comment, Moran called Ms Maskell an “English race hating b” and said she “needs to foff back to where she came” or to “p off to one of the foreign countries she keeps trying to turn York into”.
Mr Ikram said he rejected the defence’s argument that Moran was expressing his right to free speech through the Facebook comments, saying they were “grossly offensive”.
The judge asked for a pre-sentence report to be prepared before Moran is sentenced.
He granted Moran bail with conditions not to enter Ms Maskell’s office or to contact her unless through a third party to raise a legitimate concern.
Moran, who made no reaction when the judge found him guilty of the three charges on Friday (August 14), will appear at York Magistrates’ Court on Monday, September 14.
Asked if he had anything to say to Ms Maskell outside court, Moran responded: “Not really, no. It is what it is, innit?”