Woman who ‘first shared fake name’ of Southport suspect arrested
Woman who ‘first shared fake name’ of Southport suspect arrested
Bernadette Spofforth, 55, a mother-of-three, is being questioned on suspicion of stirring racial hatred by spreading a false Muslim name
A mother-of-three who works as a swimwear designer has been arrested on suspicion of stirring racial hatred by spreading a fake Muslim name for the suspect in the Southport attack. Bernadette Spofforth, 55, was taken in for questioning by police on Thursday.
Foreign agitators, including the Russian state news channel, had leapt upon false claims the Southport suspect was a small boats immigrant and there have been claims this played a role in provoking days of riots and unrest.
Police said Spofforth had been arrested on suspicion of publishing written material to stir up racial hatred, a public order offence under a 1986 law, and false communications, an offence created under the Online Safety Act 2023.
Last week The Times revealed that Spofforth, who owns a dog and enjoys walking, lives a well-to-do family life in a £1.5 million house in the rural north of England.
The businesswoman was a campaigner against Covid lockdowns and net zero policies, and until recently was the managing director of a children’s clothing company called Splash About International. She also has several US patents to her name.
She has been accused of writing on her account that Ali Al-Shakati was the Southport suspect, an “asylum seeker who came to the UK by boat last year”, and was on an “MI6 watch list”. “If this is true, then all hell is about the break loose”, the post, believed to be under consideration, said.
An hour after publishing the post at 4.49pm on Monday — she deleted it.
Spofforth denied she was the first to share the name, saying she copied it from a fellow lockdown sceptic’s account. She said it was a “really stupid mistake” that she regretted.
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The website Logically, which uses open source investigators and data science to report on misinformation, analysed the spread. It found the fake news spread around the internet at speed, suggesting it may have helped provoke the anti-immigration riot in Southport the following evening.
Send her to jail. What did she think she was doing? Having no way of validating these lies she thought, "yeah I'll just stir up some shit and get back to owning a dog". Fucking idiot.
Last week The Times revealed that Spofforth, who owns a dog and enjoys walking, lives a well-to-do family life in a £1.5 million house in the rural north of England.
She owns a dog. Utter degenerate, lock her up.
What a really pointless detail. Is this journalism now, are we going to report on the pets of all suspects?
I think you're missing the point, they're pointing out a woman with a VERY comfortable life made up a racist lie to demonise those less fortunate than herself.
The details about the dog and the house are being used to highlight her selfishness and privilege.
A common line these morons use is that foreigners or immigrants are taking resources from people who need them, but she clearly doesn't need them, she's just a bigot.
"if this is true", she wrote, fully aware that she was making it up.
"Usual suspects" crowd being the usual suspects.
And there's gonna be the same type of people claiming this arrest was unjustified.
As awful as this was, the fact she said "if this is true" and deleting it within an hour, I tend to believe her that it was in fact a really stupid mistake. Although maybe it could serve a lesson to other people not to make a really stupid mistake
Although with her anti lockdown antics, I can also see a good doubt for that.