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A British businesswoman accused of being the first person to share false information about the Southport killings of three girls has said the “mistake” has “destroyed” her.
Bernadette Spofforth is alleged to have fired off a tweet on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, wrongly claiming the stabbing suspect was an asylum seeker who came to the UK by boat hours after the three girls were killed.
The 55-year-old also shared an incorrect name for the boy accused of perpetrating attacks at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport, in which three people died.
Ms Spofforth is understood to have written: “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. If this is true, then all hell is about to break loose.”
Discussing the far-right riots that erupted after misinformation swelled online, Ms Spofforth told MailOnline: “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.”
She added: “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.”
Discussing the ordeal, she previously told The Times: “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’.”
Rioters have since attacked mosques, ambushed riot police, set fire to a hotel housing migrants and torched a public library and Citizens Advice Bureau building. There have been multiple incidents of ethnic minorities being attacked on the streets.
MailOnline says it worked out her identity after carrying out an extensive search of X posts that used the name Ali Al-Shakti, which revealed hers was the first.
Asked by the publication, she claimed she saw another individual share the name on X but could not offer any proof.
MailOnline reports that her post was deleted an hour after it surfaced but that the incorrect information had already been widely repeated by social media personalities such as far-right activist and English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson and misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate.
More than 400 people have been arrested since the violence began – with 100 already charged and suspects now going through the courts.
The Independent has reported on other women who have been involved in disorder in recent weeks by posting about it on social media or taking part in the rioting.
Axel Rudakubana, an 18-year-old born in Wales who had been living in Banks in Lancashire at the time of the Southport attack, has been charged with three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder.
