Police drop case into businesswoman accused of sparking Southport riot

A businesswoman 'dragged from her home' and 'locked up for 36 hours' for allegedly spreading a false name for the Southport dance class knifeman spoke of her 'nightmare' today after being told she faced no further police action.

Bernadette Spofforth, 55, was held on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred as part of a crackdown on those accused of whipping up tensions online following the shocking killing of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed event in July.

False information that the suspect was 'an asylum seeker who came to the UK by boat last year and was on an MI6 watch list' spread rapidly around social media, with anti-immigration riots breaking out across the country.

After being confronted last month at her £1.5million farmhouse in Cheshire by MailOnline as to why she was apparently the first person to publish the false name on X – formerly Twitter - the middle-aged woman said she had done a 'really stupid thing' which had 'literally destroyed me'.

Today she returned to social media to say that four weeks after police 'dragged me from my home and held me for 36 hours in a cell' she had been told she would face no further action.

Ms Spofforth alleged that five officers ‘turned up mob-handed’ and ‘held me for 36 hours in a concrete cell with a concrete bed, like a terrorist’. 

She also told her 54,000 social media followers she had been ‘punished as an example’.

Insisting that her supposed 'crime' had been 'sharing a tweet' which she deleted after being told it was inaccurate, she said: '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.'

Ms Spofforth claimed she had been a victim of efforts to ‘silence’ her and ‘ban dissent’. 

Ms Spofforth was not handcuffed or physically held by officers when she was escorted to a police van, Mail Online understands.

She was arrested rather than being invited for interview as her digital devices needed to be seized for examination, sources said today.

The former anti-lockdown campaigner posted the false name just hours after Bebe King, six, Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were killed on July 29.

Before the victims had been identified, she posted: 'Ali Al-Shakati was the suspect, he was an asylum seeker who came to the UK by boat last year and was on an MI6 watch list.

READ MORE

EXCLUSIVE
Woman accused of sharing false information on Southport stabbing says she is 'mortified'

'If this is true, then all hell is about to break loose.'

The false name was further spread in an article published by the Russian-linked Channel 3 Now website which was extensively retweeted.

Channel 3 Now later removed the article and apologised.

Responding at the time to the mass rioting that took place in the days that followed, Ms Spofforth told MailOnline: 'I'm mortified that I'm being accused of this. I did not make it up.

'I first received this information from somebody in Southport.'

MailOnline was able to establish her identity after conducting an extensive trawl of X posts featuring the name Ali Al-Shakti which suggested that hers was the first.

When challenged, Ms Spofforth claimed that she had seen someone else post the name on X but was unable to provide any evidence.

She added: 'My post had nothing to do with the violence we've seen across the country.

'But I acknowledge that it may have been the source for the information used by a Russian news website.'

Ms Spofforth is the managing director of a clothing company and lives in a £1.5million farmhouse in Cheshire with her husband.

She is a prominent campaigner against lockdowns and net-zero climate schemes and had tens of thousands of followers on X before she deleted her account.

Ms Spofforth later told The Times: 'Yes I did [post it]… It was a spur of the moment ridiculous thing to do, which has literally destroyed me.

'It was just a mistake. I did a really stupid stupid thing, I copied and pasted it from what I saw, and I added the line 'if this is true'.

She added: 'I think it is very easy for a situation which is very emotional and very heightened, so you can end up believing what you're seeing.

'People should be very careful about putting what they think is true without doing the research.'

Her post was deleted an hour after it appeared, but by then the false information had been widely repeated by far-right social media activists such as Tommy Robinson and Andrew Tate.

In a statement today following the end of the police probe against her, Ms Spofforth said: 'I've been unable to comment on this until now because, under the terms of my bail conditions, I faced being rearrested and locked up in a cell again if I used social media.

'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.

'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.'

She explained: ‘I had expressed my own views on the state of the country and its failure to protect innocent citizens, and that is still legal, but it’s very clear that a vocal part of our society wants the opinions of ordinary people like you and like me suppressed.

‘They say they support free speech, but they mean only the speech they agree with.'

Ms Spofforth claimed it was ­‘easier to ban dissent, and that way you can stop the public spreading unapproved news amongst ourselves.'

She added: ‘Without free speech, there is no democracy, and without democracy, there really is only tyranny.’

She had been supported by the Free Speech Union, of which she is a member.

Today its director Toby Young said: 'We're delighted the police have decided to take no further action against Bernie, who's a member of the Free Speech Union.

'Had she been prosecuted, we would have arranged for a crack team of lawyers to defend her and paid all their costs.

'She never should have been arrested in the first place, let alone held in custody for 36 hours.

'Yes, she misidentified the Southport attacker on social media, but it was an innocent mistake. She added the caveat 'if this is true' and deleted the post when she discovered it wasn't.

'As Keir Starmer said when he was Director of Public Prosecutions, in cases such as these 'a swift apology and removal of the offending tweet' should be enough.

'The police should not be wasting their time investigating law-abiding citizens because they've said something politically incorrect on social media.

'It's little wonder that not a single burglary was solved in nearly half the regions in England last year – the police are too busy policing our tweets to police our streets.

'They need to rethink their priorities.'

Last month Cheshire Police said they had arrested an unnamed woman 'in relation to social media post containing inaccurate information about the identity of the attacker in the Southport murders'.

The force said she was being questioned on suspicion of publishing written material to stir up racial hatred and false communications.

At the time, Chief Superintendent Alison Ross added: 'We have all seen the violent disorder that has taken place across the UK over the past week, much of which has been fuelled by malicious and inaccurate communications online.

'It's a stark reminder of the dangers of posting information on social media platforms without checking the accuracy.

'It also acts as a warning that we are all accountable for our actions, whether that be online or in person.'

Today the force said: 'A woman who was arrested in relation to an inaccurate social media post has been released without charge.

'The 55-year-old woman from near Chester was arrested on Thursday 8 August following allegations in relation social media post containing inaccurate information about the identity of the attacker in the Southport murders.

'Following a thorough investigation, a decision has been made that no further action will be taken due to insufficient evidence.'

Axel Rudakubana, 18, who was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents but was living in the village of Banks, Lancashire, is awaiting trial for three counts of murder, ten counts of attempted murder, and possession of a bladed article.