While foreign agitators and far-right leaders leapt upon false claims the Southport attack suspect was an immigrant who had arrived in a small boat, the allegations can be traced to social media accounts closer to home.

The woman accused of being first to post a false Muslim name for the suspect is the managing director of a clothing company. The mother of three in her mid-fifties enjoys walking, is married to an artist and counts an actor among her children. The family live in a £1.5 million farmhouse in the rural north.

She posted on Twitter/X that “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”.

  • nifty@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    3 months ago

    Why did this person deliberately spread such specific lies? Did someone pay her to do this? Or was this part of an elaborate plan to cause this rioting? In that case the initial stabbing may have been caused by the rioters themselves

    • manualoverride@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      30
      ·
      3 months ago

      She appears to be deep in the rabbit hole of far right, anti-lockdown, anti-immigrant echo chambers.

      She says she copied the tweet from elsewhere, but she better remember exactly where, because if she made it up she incited several riots and thousands of crimes based on her idiocy.

      Lies that have consequences like this, need to carry a punishment that suits those consequences.

  • manuallybreathing@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    3 months ago

    So youre telling me fascism is actually an issue in the uk and its not all ruzzians and whatever? I’m shocked

    if youve ever been in a local telegram group you’d know this shit is home grown

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      3 months ago

      “PiLlAr Of ThE cOmUnItY (so go easy on her… please? please. I mean, far be it from other pillars like myself to be just as fucked up…)” -these nutters.

  • andyburke@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    38
    ·
    3 months ago

    Fuck this woman’s whining.

    Jesus, you help start riots in your country and you’re whining. More of this, please: hold people who spread false info that leads to violence accountable!

  • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    She said: “Yes I did [post it] … It was a spur of the moment ridiculous thing to do, which has literally destroyed me. It was just a mistake. I did a really stupid stupid thing, I copied and pasted it from what I saw, and I added the line ‘if this is true’.”

    It didn’t destroy her enough. Name and shame would be appropriate, so here’s hoping she’s charged with something.