Woman accused of spreading false Southport asylum seeker claim is arrested as police issue warning
A WOMAN accused of spreading a false claim that the Southport murder suspect is an asylum seeker has been arrested.
The suspect, from near Chester, was detained today on suspicion of publishing written material to stir up racial hatred and false communications in light of the horror incident in which three children died.
Cheshire cops said she is currently being held in police custody and is assisting officers with their enquiries.
Chief Superintendent Alison Ross said: “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.”
It comes after millionaire mum Bernadette Spofforth denied she was the instigator of the false claim.
She posted the false claim on X, formerly Twitter, just hours after three girls were killed at a Taylor Swift dance class in the Merseyside town last week.
Before the victims had even been named, Spofforth tweeted: “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.”
Spofforth, 55, added: “If this is true, then all hell is about to break loose.”
The claim was flatly untrue – the suspect was not called Ali Al-Shakati, and he was not an asylum seeker or a recent arrival to the UK.
Spofforth denies being the first to instigate the claim or making up the name and details of the Southport suspect, The Sun understands.
She claims she copied and pasted another Tweet from an account in Florida which appeared 38 minutes earlier.
Spofforth claims she is only guilty of retweeting false information and that it is unfair to single her out.
In a statement, Spofforth said: “In recent days I’ve been falsely accused of being the first person to spread the name and description of a person alleged to have carried out the atrocities in Southport.
“Such a claim is absurd. In reality I actually fell into the trap of sharing misinformation – like thousands of others did across social media in the aftermath of the attack.
“The post I shared was pasted from details of a message I’d seen on Twitter, and was caveated by the point it needed further verification.
“Since being wrongly accused of being the first person to share this name I’ve spent a great deal of time researching the history and origin of the post I shared.
“By checking servers worldwide, I can now show and prove that other sources uploaded articles long before my post.
“Thousands more posts sharing the same name and sentence have also since been deleted, and it is not possible to trace the times of their posts.
“It is of paramount importance that people understand that unless they can verify a source of information, then they should not use it.
“This is something I would always normally do But on this occasion, I accept I failed in my duties to be as thorough as I could have been, and I deeply regret this.
“I would like to apologise for failing to check the source material and posting in the heat of the moment.
“However it is wholly incorrect to suggest my post was somehow a catalyst for riots.
“I absolutely support the right for people to share opinions and interpretations of current affairs and I highly value free speech.
“But the intentional spreading of blatantly false information is a threat to all of us and something we should all take responsibility for not engaging in. I absolutely will do this in the future.”
Mum-of-three Spofforth’s false claim spread rapidly on social media, where it was allegedly boosted by Russian trolls.
It was also shared by far-right agitators like Tommy Robinson and Andrew Tate.
The fake news about the Southport suspect sparked a week of far-right riots across the UK.
Cops have charged UK-born teen Axel Rudakubana with the murders of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar.
Rudakubana, 18, has also been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder and possession of a bladed article.
The teen suspect was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents who arrived legally in the UK in 2002.
Fashion company boss Spofforth lives with her family in a £1.5million farmhouse in Cheshire.
Last night she told the Mail: “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.
“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.”