Violence started soon after the Southport killings
After the killings of three young girls in Southport, violence soon broke out. Both police officers and the mosque were targeted. Disorder spilled out across the country, including in Liverpool where yobs smashed up and torched Spellow Library on County Road, Walton.
A report by the Home Affairs select committee assessing the police response to the disruption that followed has analysed the role of social media in the aftermath of the killings as well as the pressure Merseyside Police found itself under to release more information.
The panel said there had been ‘several common features’ in the violent disorder that sprung up across the country and praised the bravery of officers deployed. However, the committee rejected any suggestion of ‘two-tier policing’ throughout the summer.
In their 41-page report, MPs said after the three girls were killed ‘the chosen sites of protests, such as asylum hotels, were at best controversial and at worst an incitement to violence.’
Merseyside Police could not reveal the killers identity at first
Much was made of how Merseyside Police responded to the attacks and what information it could share with the public. Owing to Axel Rudakubana being under 18 at the time of the murders, the force was unable to publish his identity immediately.
This allowed misinformation to circulate online, including one suggestion that an asylum seeker by the name of Ali-Al-Shakati – which was invented – had arrived in the UK by boat in 2023. One tweet including this information was posted at just before 5pm on July 29 and retweeted several thousand times.
The claim was subsequently reported by the artificial news website ‘Channel3Now’ an hour later, causing it to spread further still. A day later when disorder began, Merseyside Police confirmed that the information circulating on social media was false, but were still unable to confirm the suspect’s real identity for legal reasons.
The Crown Prosecution Service was asked if the suspects religion could be released
On the evening of July 31, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was asked for advice on a press statement which confirmed Rudakubana’s religion. While on a national level, there were no concerns about this being released, Serena Kennedy, Merseyside Police Chief Constable said it was the ‘very clear view’ of the local CPS that information about the religion should not be included, and moreover that this was ‘because of the impact on the criminal justice process.’
She told MPs it was this ‘direction’ which meant the information about the suspect’s religion was not published.
Social media was spreading misinformation
Police forces also told the committee that social media was a significant factor in the spread of disorder as it was used to disseminate information about protests and other action. According to the report, Chief Constable Kennedy was not able to say whether she thought publishing information about the suspect’s religion would have prevented further disorder, adding that her main motivation in publishing the information was to try to protect Muslim communities, rather than to prevent disorder.
A lack of trust in institutions including the police made it difficult to explain to communities why this information was not released, MPs were told. Emily Spurrell, Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner and chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, told the committee:
When you are trying to go out and explain to the public […] why certain information is not being put in the public domain to protect that process [the judicial process], we were coming at it from a point where they did not trust what we were saying.
[We] need to look at how we rebuild that trust in all the different sectors so people know that they are going to get the right service when they want it. Then when we do have to explain to them or make difficult decisions, they understand why that is happening.
Legal restrictions put the olice in a difficult position
The committee concluded Merseyside Police had been left in a “very difficult position” given legal restrictions on identifying Rudakubana and the need to withhold certain information in order to protect the trial. They said:
The inconsistent advice from the CPS over the publication of information about the suspect’s religion was particularly regrettable and hampered the police response.
It cannot be determined whether the disorder could have been prevented had more information been published. However, the lack of information published in the wake of the murders of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar created a vacuum where misinformation was able to grow, further undermining public confidence.
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