Mother accused of sparking Southport riots by posting fake attacker name has police case dropped
18 September 2024, 13:04
A woman who was arrested after making false accusations that were said to have helped spark last month's riots in a social media post has had her police case dropped.
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Bernadette Spofforth, 55, was arrested on August 8 after reposting the fake name of the Southport attacker, commenting that if it were true there would be "hell to pay". She said she was held by police for a day and a half.
She later deleted the post, which suggested wrongly that the attacker accused of killing three young girls in the Merseyside town was a Muslim asylum seeker.
Ms Spofforth said on Wednesday: "My crime was sharing a tweet which I deleted and apologised for sharing as soon I realised it contained inaccurate information.
"As has now been shown, the idea that one single tweet could be the catalyst for the riots which followed the atrocities in Southport is simply not true.
🚨”IF THIS IS TRUE” - I am Bernadette Spofforth… you know me as Bernie.
— Bernie (@Artemisfornow) September 18, 2024
And this is the story of how the State silenced an ordinary citizen, through arrest and bail conditions, to ensure only State truth was heard.
With special thanks to @sdavieslaw @speechUnion pic.twitter.com/p7ouXnl6qR
"Yet, despite repeatedly insisting I'd done nothing illegal, the police dragged me from my home and held me for 36 hours in a cell.
"What I've experienced over the past few weeks is nothing in comparison to the suffering of the tragic victims in Southport. And I'm not trying to compare the two.
"But I am just an ordinary person with ordinary opinions and I think it's important that the public should know how ordinary people can be treated.
"The nightmare my family and I have lived through over the past month could happen to anyone. And in Britain in 2024 that's unacceptable."
In a video posted on social media, Ms Spofforth said that five police officers had arrived "mob-handed" to arrest her.
She protested that she would not have made the information up, and claimed that "activists didn't actually care about the truth".
"I explained my post was political, as almost all of my posts are, and my post was aimed at the Government and its failing policies.
"I had not and would not make something up, but perhaps the authorities and the activists didn't actually care about the truth."
Police said on Wednesday: "A woman who was arrested in relation to an inaccurate social media post has been released without charge.
"Following a thorough investigation, a decision has been made that no further action will be taken due to insufficient evidence."
Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven and Alicia Silva Aguiar, nine, were killed in Southport during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 30.
The suspect is Axel Rudakubana, an 18-year-old British citizen born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents.
The fake name for the attacker, and the false claim that he is a Muslim refugee who had arrived by boat in the country in the past year, was spread online by a number of far-right commentators.
Anti-immigration hostility ensued, with unrest breaking out in locations across the country, despite the fact that the rumour was not true.
The information appeared to originate from a news website called Channel3 Now, and the site's editor-in-chief later apologised.
Pakistani web developer Farhan Asif, 32, has since been charged with cyberterrorism.
