Woman arrested after making false claims about Southport stabbing suspect – case dropped | UK news

Police have dropped charges against a woman who was arrested for giving false information about the identity of a Southport stabbing suspect.

Bernadette Spofforth was arrested at her home in Chester in August on charges of publishing written material designed to incite racial hatred and spread false information.

In the hours after the murder of the three childrenThe 55-year-old posted on social media. He gave the suspect's name incorrectly and claimed that he was an asylum seeker who had arrived by boat and was on a terrorist watch list.

The police soon declared The suspect was born in Wales.

In a statement on Wednesday, Ms Spofforth said police had told her on September 5 that she “should not expect any further action”.

She said she could not announce the news until now because her bail conditions meant she could be arrested again for using social media.

Cheshire Police confirmed that the case had been dropped due to “insufficient evidence.”

“My crime was sharing a tweet that I deleted and apologized for sharing once I realized it contained inaccurate information,” Ms Spofforth said.

“As it has now become clear, the idea that a single tweet could have sparked the unrest that followed the atrocities in Southport is simply not true.”

She also posted a video on X giving her version of events.

She said she copied “a name and a phrase” from another post without checking the source, but added the line “If this is true, all hell will break loose.”

Ms Spofforth said there was a “concerted effort” on the internet to put her in prison.

She also claimed that on August 8, three police cars and a prison van arrived to arrest her and that she was put in a cell for 36 hours “like a terrorist.”

Read more:
False information from Southport fuels right-wing extremist discourse
How the far right hijacked the protests in Southport

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A website called Channel3 Now was accused of being one of the first sources of the false claims.

The website apologized after the allegations were dismissed by police, while 32-year-old web developer Farhan Asif was charged in Pakistan.

However, the country's police later said they had found no evidence that Mr Asif was the author of the message and dropped the case.

A statement from Cheshire Police said: “A woman arrested in connection with an inaccurate social media post has been released without charge.”

“The 55-year-old woman from near Chester was arrested on Thursday, August 8, following allegations related to a social media post which contained inaccurate information about the identity of the attacker in the Southport murders.

“After a thorough investigation, it was decided that no further action would be taken due to insufficient evidence.”