Man wrongly accused of being Liverpool car driver speaks out
Seven people remain in hospital in a stable condition after the collision on Water Street, Liverpool, on bank holiday Monday and 79 people in total were injured in the incident.
Police quickly arrested a 53-year-old white British man from West Derby, Liverpool, who is currently being questioned on suspicion of attempted murder, dangerous driving and drug driving.
Merseyside Police released no other details about the suspect but another man – father-of-three Peter Cunningham – saw his photo shared online and was wrongly named as the man who was arrested.
The 54-year-old was inundated with calls and texts from concerned family and friends but he told the Liverpool Echo that he was neither at the parade nor in the city centre on Monday.
Cunningham, from Huyton, Liverpool told the Echo it left him feeling 'stressed out,' adding: 'I don't need it all.'
He said: 'It's a bad thing that has happened...
'It's nothing to do with me, I'm in work right now and the man they arrested is in custody.'
He also criticised YouTubers for sharing misinformation.
Cunningham said he had contacted the original poster of his misidentified image and managed to get it removed.
Merseyside Police took the unusual step of releasing some details about the suspect in the immediate aftermath of the collision.
Typically, this does not happen as details could identify someone, which could possibly prejudice any future trial or breach the privacy of that individual.
On this occasion, the force gave noticeably more details about the suspect's age and his description – in this case a 'white British male'.
This came following criticism levelled at Merseyside Police for their lack of information in the aftermath of the Southport knife attacks last year.
One of Merseyside Police's former inspectors, Peter Williams, a senior lecturer in policing at Liverpool John Moores University, said the force had adopted a "complete step change" in how it shares information as a result.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday: 'It has been a shift, because, particularly in relation to the aftermath of Southport... there was a lot of criticism focused at Merseyside Police and of course the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service], in relation to how the management of information was sort of dealt with.'
Williams said that the force may have been mindful of how information was handled by Lancashire Constabulary in the disappearance of Nicola Bulley in January 2023, which led to a College of Policing inquiry.
Former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent Dal Babu told BBC Radio 5 Live that the decision to release so much information about the suspect was 'unprecedented' but was probably done to avoid rioting that was seen in the immediate aftermath of the Southport attacks.
Babu added: 'It's remarkably striking because police will not release that kind of information because they'll be worried about prejudicing any future trial, but I think they have to balance that against the potential of public disorder.'
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