FALSE RUMOUR
Millionaire mum accused of being first to spread false Southport asylum seeker claim denies she was instigator
The fashion boss lives with her family in a £1.5million Cheshire farmhouse
A MILLIONAIRE mum accused of being first to spread a false claim which sparked riots across Britain has denied she was the instigator.
Bernadette Spofforth wrongly claimed the Southport attack suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in Britain by boat last year.
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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."
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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.
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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.
Biggest cop operation EVER begins as far-right thugs plot carnage in 100 areas
“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 : "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."
Spofforth has not produced any evidence to support her claim that she received the fake news from someone in Southport.
She claimed she saw someone else post the false name Ali Al-Shakati - but could not provide evidence for this claim either.
Spofforth is a prominent conspiracy theorist who has campaigned against lockdowns and vaccinations.
The millionaire mum had tens of thousands of Twitter followers before she deleted her account.
She previously told : "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.'
"I think it is very easy for a situation which is very emotional and very heightened, so you can end up believing what you're seeing.
"People should be very careful about putting what they think is true without doing the research."
WEEK OF CARNAGE
It comes as dawn raids were launched this morning to arrest suspected violent offenders.
Cops have released CCTV images in a bid to hunt down dozens of thugs involved in riots.
Met chief Sir Mark Rowley said his force had smashed its way into the homes of the "most violent" members of last week's riots.
The biggest police mobilisation in UK history rolled onto the streets last night to combat planned carnage at 100 sites by far-right thugs.
But The Sun has revealed yobs are planning 11 MORE riots in secret Facebook groups so cops "can't catch on" after a week of chaos.
Murdered MP Jo Cox's widower Brendan Cox has warned we must take drastic action to hold the Wild West of social media to account.
Britain's top prosecutor said rioting yobs could face terror charges over the carnage.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
More than 400 people have now been arrested over the week of carnage on England and Northern Ireland's streets.
Suspects have already been convicted for offences including violent disorder and affray.
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