Bernadette Spofforth speaks out on GB News after being held for 36 hours in police custody for a social media post: 'I was treated like a terrorist'

A woman who was held in police custody for 36 hours over a social media post has told GB News she was treated "like a terrorist".

Speaking to Patrick Christys, Bernadette Spofforth opened up on her "horrendous" ordeal and how she now "lives in fear" of being arrested for another social media post.

In August 2024, public disorder erupted across parts of the country following the brutal murders of three young girls at a dance class in Southport, of course, by Axel Rudakubana.

Police were criticised for withholding key details about the attacker, creating an information vacuum in which false claims about the perpetrator spread rapidly online.

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Bernadette Spofforth was dragged from her home by police and held in a cell for 36 hours on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred, after sharing the wrong name of the attacker online.

Despite deleting the post as soon as she realised the information was incorrect, it took a month before she was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Sharing her horror ordeal with GB News, Ms Spofforth recalled how the incident had an "appalling" impact on her life.

She said: "I'd been in business for 30 years. I'm a sensible person, I'm a voracious information gatherer, and on that one day I didn't do it, I didn't check, and I just put out a post and I said, 'if this is true, there will be hell to pay'.

"We'd had little girls murdered, a dance class attacked, it was horrendous. I realised that I hadn't checked it and before I even knew it was false, I deleted it."

Ms Spofforth said the police treated her as if she was an "extremist" and suffered a "horrendous" ordeal.

She recalled: "They had a scalp, and that scalp wasn't the usual type of scalp, and I actually think they thought I was some kind of really serious extremist. Of course, I wasn't, I just made a mistake.

"And exactly as Keir Starmer had said two years before, if people make a mistake on social media and they delete it, that should be the end of the story. But it wasn't."

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Ms Spofforth was then taken into custody and held for 36 hours before being released.

She told GB News: "It was horrendous, absolutely awful. I was held like a terrorist for 36 hours.

"There are some people out there who are so brave, I've seen them be arrested and come out firing on all cylinders. I was destroyed."

She admitted that she now "lives in fear" of being arrested again for something she posts online.

She said: "I'm terrified. I'm terrified of being arrested.I'm too frightened to speak about things.

"I'm too scared because I don't know what I personally can say and what I can't."

A spokesman for Chester Police has previously told GB News: "The 55-year-old woman from near Chester was arrested on Thursday, August 8, following allegations related to a social media post containing inaccurate information about the identity of attacker in the Southport murders.

"Following a thorough investigation, a decision has been made that no further action will be taken due to insufficient evidence."

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