Chris Packham calls for Jeremy Clarkson to be jailed over now-deleted Meghan Markle column

Chris Packham seemed to take aim at Jeremy Clarkson’s Meghan Markle column (Picture: BBC)

Chris Packham has appeared to call for Jeremy Clarkson to be jailed for his hateful Meghan Markle column.

Clarkson has sparked over 12,000 Ipso complaints after he admitted to ‘hating’ the Duchess of Sussex in an article published in The Sun, which has since been removed at his request.

He also said he ‘dreamed’ of her being shamed in the streets of Britain while naked.

Springwatch presenter Packham seemed to indirectly slam Clarkson for the column, branding his opinion piece a ‘hate crime’.

Taking to Twitter on Monday evening, he penned: ‘It’s [a] hate crime, pure & simple.

The Springwatch host called for the ex-Top Gear presenter to be jailed (Picture: Twitter) Clarkson wrote that he ‘hated’ Meghan on a ‘cellular level’ (Picture: Rex)

‘If there were any sort of justice there would be laws that would jail him. And shut down the publisher.

‘Is this the country we want to live in? Is this what we should tolerate? We must ask ourselves – where is this leading? Nowhere good.’ (sic)

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) recognises hate crimes on the basis of race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and transgender identity.

A hate crime can be prosecuted if the offender has demonstrated hostility based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or transgender identity, or has been motivated by hostility on any of the above.

This isn’t the first time Packham has called out Clarkson. In 2019, the broadcaster hit out at the Grand Tour presenter for calling Greta Thunberg ‘mad’ and ‘dangerous’ for ‘causing children to have sleepless nights with her idiocy’.

Addressing him directly, Packham tweeted: ‘Hello @JeremyClarkson just saw this rant about @GretaThunberg. I know you’ll be thinking I’m “weird’ & “a stupid idiot” but I suggest you sit down & have a think about what a dangerous and unpleasant a**e you’ll be remembered as by your grandchildren.’

Meghan recently opened up on being subjected to horrible media coverage in her Netflix documentary (Picture: Backgrid)

Clarkson has said he is ‘horrified to have caused so much hurt’ following the mounting backlash he has received over his column.

‘Oh dear,’ he tweeted on Monday afternoon. ‘I’ve rather put my foot in it. In a column I wrote about Meghan, I made a clumsy reference to a scene in Game of Thrones and this has gone down badly with a great many people.

‘I’m horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future.’

The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) has said it is examining the thousands of complaints that it has received, however, it will take some time to process due to the volume.

Clarkson’s column came just days after Netflix released the final three episodes of Meghan and Prince Harry’s bombshell series.

The Duchess of Sussex had been vocal about the British media wanting to ‘destroy her’ in the new documentary, while also claiming that ‘salacious’ stories had been ‘planted’ in the press.

‘At that point, I was still very much believing what I was being told, which was ‘it will pass, it will get better, it’s just what they do right at the very beginning,’ she said.

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‘This promise of ‘once you’re married, don’t worry, it’ll get better, once they get used to you it’ll get better, of course it’ll get better.

‘But truth be told, no matter how hard I tried, no matter how good I was, no matter what I did, they were still going to find a way to destroy me.’

Like Packham, celebrities have voiced their shock at Clarkson’s words, including his own daughter Emily, who said she stands against ‘everything that my dad wrote’.

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