A WEALTHY aristocrat accused of offering £5,000 for someone to "accidentally" run anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller over claimed the messages were "just satire", a court heard.

Rhodri Philipps, the 4th Viscount St Davids, allegedly sent a string of menacing messages including those relating to Ms Miller on social media.

The 50-year-old is said to have written a post related to an article headlined "Gina Miller clashes with Nigel Farage on TV over Brexit law challenge" where he offered cash for the campaigner to be run over.

He allegedly wrote in November: "£5,000 for the first person to 'accidentally' run over this bloody troublesome first generation immigrant.

"This f***ing boat jumper come to this country, then believes she knows better than the people of our country, what is best for us.

"If this what we should expect from immigrants, send them back to their stinking jungles."

Westminster Magistrates Court was told Philipps also commented about an article about a man called Arnold Sube headlined "Immigrant who turned down 'small' five-bed house may have more kids".

He offered £2,000 for the "first person to carve" the "piece of s*** into pieces", the court heard.

Philipps allegedly added: "Please will someone 'smoke' this ghastly insult to our country.

"Why should I pay tax to feed these monkeys. A returns to Planet of the apes is not acceptable.

"Doubtless some horrid do gooder will take this post down. I'll count the minutes."

All three messages were posted using his Facebook account, which uses his 'Viscount St Davids' title and picture.

He was arrested at home on January 25 over the Ms Miller post.

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Philipps told officers, "This is about the Gina Miller thing isn't it – I knew it", the court heard.

Following the discovery of the two other posts, he was interviewed on March 29.

Prosecutor Philip Stott said: "In his interviews, Lord St Davids accepted sending the messages in question, but denied that they were of a menacing character, that he intended them to be menacing, or that he was aware at the time of a risk that a reasonable member of the public might find them menacing.

"He stated that he found Ms Miller and Mr Sube's actions as reported in the various news articles to be extremely infuriating, and stood by what he had written, which had been by way of political comment or satire.

"He denied being a racist, and stated that he had a number of friends and acquaintances of different races and religions to his own.

"He said that he had his privacy settings on Facebook set at a high level so that only his Facebook 'friends' would see what he wrote, and he stated that none of his Facebook 'friends ' would have found his posts to be menacing, and that a large number in fact liked them."

The post about Ms Miller came to light after it was seen by Matthew Steeples, a Facebook friend of Philipps.

Mr Steeples was a friend of Ms Miller, and a passed screen shot onto her.

Philipps, of Knightsbridge, central London, denies three counts of sending by public communication network a menacing message.

The trial continues.

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