Bernadette Spofforth, 55, has spoken out after having been told she will face no charges for sharing a social media post in the wake of the Southport attacks.
Cheshire Police told the businesswoman she will not be taken to court for her posts.
Spofforth was arrested last month at her home, and held by police for 36 hours before being bailed on August 10.
Under the terms of her bail conditions she was unable to post anything on social media.
Bernadette Spofforth was cleared
X
She has issued a video message responding to the affair which she says has been a “nightmare” for her and her family.
“On the 8 August, the police turned up mob handed, five of them, three police cars and a prison van and instead of a simple, voluntary interview, they searched me, arrested me and held me for 36 hours in a concrete cell and a concrete bed, like a terrorist”, she said.
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“They held me even though I told them that the evidence they needed had been found by data experts and my post was political, as almost all of my posts are, and my post was aimed at the Government and its failing policies.
“I had not and would not make something up. Perhaps the authorities and the activists did not care about the truth, and just wanted to punish me as an example.
“Finally I was released on bail. There was nothing to take to a magistrates and nothing to charge me with, but it didn’t end there.
“My bail conditions included that I couldn’t engage onstage social media, they didn’t want me to speak to you about anything at all which meant I couldn’t tell you of the damage done to me by activists and reporters and it had been so complete I couldn’t leave my house.
Violent riots erupted after the stabbing in SouthportPA“Reporters would wait for me in my garden and every day I had hate mail. I had nothing to gain from making that up, but others did gain.
“Journalists gained their clicks, detractors gained my silence and authorities gained the silencing of you, because so many were afraid to speak.
“So to those who celebrated my arrest don’t enjoy it too much, because it could easily happen to you and the difference between us is, I would fight for you.”
The businessman had wrongly claimed on X, formerly Twitter, that the suspect in the killing of the three girls outside a Taylor Swift dance class was an asylum seeker who had recently arrived in the UK by boat.
Spofforth issued a statement
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The accusation, which was pedalled on social media by many, has been blamed for sparking riots which spread across the country.
She 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.”
She added: “If this is true, then all hell is about to break loose.”
