I was wrongly identified as Liverpool parade crash suspect after keyboard warriors shared my picture online
A man who was wrongly accused of driving a car into a crowd of Liverpool FC fans on Monday has hit out at the keyboard warriors who shared his photo online, blasting them for 'making money' with false accusations.
Peter Cunningham, a father of three from Huyton on the eastern outskirts of the Merseyside city, found himself at the centre of an armchair detective probe after a man ploughed into fans on Water Street at 6pm on Monday, injuring 79.
Mr Cunningham, 54, had his picture circulated online by keyboard warriors who were fervently trying to identify the suspect after Merseyside Police released information on the driver's identity.
Ironically, the force is thought to have released some information on the suspect - a 53-year-old white British man from Liverpool - in order to avoid a repeat of the storm of misinformation online in the wake of the Southport attacks.
But Mr Cunningham was wrongly fingered by social media ghouls as the man responsible despite the fact he is the wrong age, and from another area of Liverpool.
He has, however, been forced to take the unprecedented and unusual step of denying it is him to bat off amateur sleuths.
He told several media outlets today that he was not at the parade in Liverpool city centre on Monday afternoon - and has called on the police to release the name of the man currently under arrest.
He told the BBC: 'It's not me. The police need to do something.'
And speaking to the Liverpool Echo, Mr Cunningham said his phone began ringing off the hook as news of the incident in the city centre broke.
He said: 'I'm stressed out, I don't need it all. It's a bad thing that has happened and the police need to do something about it and get his name out there.
'Other people's names have been shared. I was getting phone calls off family members and friends saying, 'What the hell is going on?'.
'These YouTubers and people on social media are just sharing it to make money.'
UK police forces do not typically release the names of individuals suspected of crimes until they have been charged.
A Merseyside Police spokesperson said: 'We have arrested a 53-year-old man from West Derby and he remains in police custody where he continues to be interviewed.'
Earlier, the force said suggestions that anyone else has been arrested were 'incorrect'.
Merseyside Police is thought to have released information on the identity of the suspected attacker promptly after its failure to do so in the wake of the Southport attacks stoked a fire of misinformation.
Trolls claimed a Muslim illegal immigrant had carried out the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed summer holiday club last July.
In reality, the killer was Axel Rudakubana, a British teenager born to Christian parents - but the misinformation nevertheless fuelled anti-immigration protests outside asylum hotels and riots in town centres across the country.
Amateur sleuths have also been criticised for trying to get involved in high-profile police investigations, such as that of missing mother Nicola Bulley.
TikTok trolls were seen trudging through areas close to where she disappeared, and had made cruel allegations that her friends were 'crisis actors' somehow covering up her true fate.
It prompted Lancashire Police, which investigated her ultimately tragic death, to hit out at TikTokers for 'been playing (at being) their own private detectives'.
Nevertheless, social media continues to ferment with speculation as to the identity of the driver in the Liverpool incident.
A man thought to be the driver remains under arrest on suspicion of attempted murder, driving offences and driving while unfit through drugs.
Some 50 people, including four children, needed hospital treatment following the carnage at the end of the Premier League champions' open-topped bus celebrations on Monday evening.
Eleven victims were stable and recovering well in hospital last night, but police sources said it was a miracle no one had died.
The attack occurred just after 6pm on Water Street, a road off The Strand – the main thoroughfare in front of the Royal Liver Building – which the team bus had passed moments before, as supporters walked home.
Horrifying footage shows fans being catapulted into the air and some trapped under the wheels. Fire crews extracted four people, including a child, from under the vehicle.
Mobile phone footage from neighbouring Dale Street shows the driver blasting his horn at fans, some of whom strike the vehicle with their fists and feet.
He is thought to have tailgated an ambulance, rushing to help a suspected heart attack victim, through a roadblock and into the throngs of jubilatory fans.
A source told the Mail that the incident was 'more road rage, not terror'.
'It seems the driver was panicked or frightened or both, but what happened next was terrible,' they said.
Assistant Chief Constable Jenny Sims, of Merseyside Police, told reporters yesterday: 'An extensive investigation into the precise circumstances of the incident are ongoing, and we continue to ask people not to speculate on the circumstances surrounding the incident and refrain from sharing distressing content online.'
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