On 7 February, a 30-second video started spreading on social media. It showed a man, who said he was 25, asking a schoolgirl for her phone number.
“I’m only 15,” the girl told him. “You don’t do that in this country, you go to jail.”
The footage was seized upon by far-right activists to claim the man was an asylum seeker and present refugees as a sexual threat to white women.
One figure with almost 23,000 followers on Telegram shared it with the caption: “Hotels across the country are filled with the same mindset third world scum.”
In one of many similar posts, a white supremacist wrote to more than 16,000 Telegram followers that the man was a “migrant” who “propositioned” the girl, adding: “Men like this are being sent to towns and cities all over the UK.”
Police have not established whether the man in the footage is an asylum seeker, or if he lives in the Merseyside area, and say that local concerns have been fuelled by “misinformation and rumour”.
But the events that followed culminated with a mob clashing with police outside a hotel housing migrants in Knowsley.
Lit fireworks were thrown at officers while a police van was smashed by protesters armed with hammers, before being set alight in violent scenes that sparked condemnation from the home secretary.
As the police probe into the disorder continues,The Independent has investigated the build-up to the riot, which broke out three months after a far-right terror attack which targeted a migrant processing centre in Dover.
Small boat crossings in the English Channel have become a focus for extremist groups, with nationalists finding and filming hotels housing asylum seekers regularly since 2020.
The Suites Hotel in Knowsley was publicised by Britain First on 23 January, with the group posting a video on Telegram and other social media channels claiming it was “filled with working-age illegal immigrant men”.
Then on 4 February, the white nationalist Patriotic Alternative group staged a similar stunt, protesting outside the hotel with a banner reading: “Europe belongs to the European.”
A post on Telegram said its members then posted more than 200 leaflets in the local area, emblazoned with large writing saying: “5 star hotels for migrants whilst Brits freeze.”
The Suites Hotel was already known locally for housing asylum seekers and had appeared on social media in lists of hotels used by the Home Office. One of those it was mentioned on was a Facebook page with more than 10,000 members called “Hotels Housing Illegals”.
But anger ignited after the hotel was linked, without proof, to the footage of the teenage girl being harassed.
As the video continued to spread on far-right networks and among concerned locals, a local newspaper reported on a police investigation into the video.
An article published on the morning of 8 February said police were “still looking to establish the circumstances” of the incident, in Kirkby, and wanted to speak to the girl who filmed it.
When the story was shared on the newspaper’s Facebook page, it received hundreds of comments, including dozens mentioning the Suites Hotel.
One woman claimed she saw the man involved “walking back towards there”, while another said that she had “seen him with my eyes … definitely 100 per cent him”.
Many commenters said they did not want asylum seekers staying at the hotel, writing “one is too many for me, they’re horrible”, and “we want them out”.
Later that afternoon, calls started spreading among local people and far-right groups for people to attend a protest outside the hotel at 8pm on 10 February.
News of the demonstration was amplified by the “Hotels Housing Illegals” Facebook page on Wednesday evening, and was spreading across social media networks and WhatsApp groups.
Anti-fascists called a counter-protest to take place at the same time, and police went to the scene to keep the two groups apart from 6.30pm onwards.
One man who attended the protest, which was initially peaceful, told the PA news agency he had first seen the allegations “on TikTok and online”.
Alan Marsden, 59, said that women and children initially made up a significant portion of the crowd but the character of the event changed when “kids with masks and balaclavas on turned up”.
Merseyside Police confirmed that “a number of people, who were not part of the original protest group” arrived after the start of the demonstration, adding: “They turned up armed with hammers and fireworks to cause as much trouble as they could and their actions could have resulted in members of the public and police officers being seriously injured, or worse.”
The following hours saw missiles, including lit fireworks, thrown at officers and a police van get smashed and set on fire.
The crowd could be heard shouting about “nonces” and accusing the police of protecting paedophiles, making reference to the video of the 15-year-old girl, as well as shouting anti-refugee and racist slogans.
Police arrested 13 men and boys and two women, between the ages of 13 and 54, on suspicion of violent disorder. So far, one person has been charged.
Merseyside Police chief constable Serena Kennedy said: “We understand that prior to this happening last night there were rumours, and misinformation, being circulated on social media following an incident earlier in the week.
“I am mindful of the risks that rumour and speculation bring and want to reassure the public that we are aware of an incident which happened at the beginning of the week and an investigation is ongoing.”
Police said they still have not identified the teenage girl in the footage and said that, although a man in his 20s was arrested on 9 February, he was “in another part of the country” and was not living at the Suites Hotel.
He was investigated for a public order offence, which can include threatening behaviour, but the Crown Prosecution Service did not bring a charge and the man was released with no further action.
Superintendent Karl Baldwin said much of the concern in the local community was “based on misinformation and rumour”.
“Those involved in the violent activity on Friday used rumours and allegations as an excuse to commit violence and intimidate members of the public,” he added.
“The suspicious incident last week in Kirkby is, like all such allegations, under investigation by detectives and we always encourage anyone with information on suspected crime in your area to come forward directly to police or anonymously via Crimestoppers.
“Social media posting and sharing of unsubstantiated rumour is not the way to raise concerns to the police, it could jeopardise any investigation and put innocent people in harm’s way”.
A two-day dispersal order was put in place around the hotel to allow police to stop any further disorder, but allegations about men staying at the Suites Hotel remain in rampant circulation on social media.
Update:This article was amended on February 14 2023. It originally stated that a mob had clashed ‘with police and pro-refugee protesters’, but witnesses have told The Independent counter-protesters were not involved in the clashes.
