The defendant told the court the flag and its message had been a “protest” against the MP’s call to remove flags put up on street furniture and lampposts in the city.
“It wasn’t threatening or abusive, it was meant to wind up the left wing bubble in York who don’t like the English flag,” he said.
Moran claimed the use of “kill” in the flag had referred to Maskell being a “buzzkill” or a “killjoy” but others had “started a different narrative”.
However, prosecutor Verity Barnes said the defendant had made this up in his police interview and he had used the language to provoke people in a busy public space.
After the flag was posted on Facebook, people asked Moran in the comments what he had meant by the misspelling and asked if it had it been a mistake.
He wrote: “Why would I tell you?”
The court heard he had proceeded to call Maskell an “English race hating b****” and say she “needs to f*** off back to where she came” or to “p*** off to one of the foreign countries she keeps trying to turn York into”.
He denied this was grossly offensive, telling the court: “I intended to swear, I could be more offensive.”
In a statement to the court, the MP said the flag “caused me to feel distressed with the threat of being a target in political violence”.
She added: “It may not have had that intention but it could embolden others to think that way.”
Judge Ikram told the court he was not passing judgement on people’s right to fly flags.
However, he said the message on the flag had been “threatening and abusive and right-minded people would have seen it that way”.
The judge found Moran guilty of displaying a threatening or abusive sign likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
He also found him guilty of writing grossly offensive comments on Facebook.
Moran will be sentenced at York Magistrates’ Court on 14 September.
