Woman arrested over Southport stabbing comments issues six-word warning
A woman who was arrested for sharing false information about the identity of the Southport stabbing suspect has spoken out for the first time after her case was dropped by police.
Bernadette Spofforth, 55, was arrested at her home in Chester in August on suspicion of publishing written material to stir up racial hatred and false communications.
In the hours after the horrific attack in Merseyside this summer, which left three young girls dead and several others injured, Spofforth shared a post which included the name of the alleged uspect, before warning there would be “hell to pay” if it proved to be accurate.
Police soon revealed that the suspect was born in Wales. Spofforth says she was held by police for 36 hours before being bailed on August 10.
In an X post today, the millionaire businesswoman said police had informed her on September 5 she would “face no further action”.
She said she hadn’t been able to share the update until now, as her bail conditions meant she could be rearrested for posting on social media.
Spofforth insisted she had simply copied “a name and a sentence” from another post without checking the source and added the line, “if this is true, there will be hell to pay”.
A “concerted effort” online to have her jailed then followed, she claimed. She also alleged that three police cars and a prison van arrived to arrest her and that she spent 36 hours in a cell “like a terrorist”.
“Journalists gained their clicks, detractors gained my silence and authorities gained the silencing of you, because so many were afraid to speak,” she said in a video posted to the site.
In a six-word warning she also told viewers who “celebrated my arrest” not to “enjoy it too much”, as “it could easily happen to you”.
Spofforth said she shared a “tweet which I deleted and apologised for sharing as soon I realised it contained inaccurate information”.
She argued that she would not have made the information up, claiming “activists didn’t actually care about the truth”.
The fabricated name for the alleged attacker, and the false claim that he is a Muslim and a migrant who had arrived in the country by boat in the past year, had been spread online by hard-Right commentators in an apparent bid to stoke anger towards immigrants.
A number of riots broke out across the country, particularly in Southport, and the claims spread widely online despite being entirely made up.
Spofforth also argued that “the idea that one single tweet could be the catalyst for the riots which followed the atrocities in Southport is simply not true”.
Cheshire Police didn’t name Spofforth in its statement, but confirmed that a 55-year-old woman from near Chester wouldn’t face any further action.
“A woman who was arrested in relation to an inaccurate social media post has been released without charge,” a spokesperson said.
“The 55-year-old woman from near Chester was arrested on Thursday August 8 following allegations in relation to a 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.”
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