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The Independent
7 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Speed of release of race and ethnicity of Liverpool suspect ‘unprecedented'
The speed at which police released the race and ethnicity of the suspect in the Liverpool car incident is 'unprecedented', a former chief superintendent has said. Merseyside Police confirmed they had a arrested a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area around two hours after the incident that left dozens of people, including four children, hurt. The force was criticised in the wake of the Southport murders last summer for not releasing more information after false rumours were started online that the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker. Former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent Dal Babu told BBC Radio 5 Live: 'What we do have, which is unprecedented, is the police very quickly giving the ethnicity and the race of the person who was driving the vehicle… and it was Merseyside Police who didn't give that information with the Southport horrific murders of those three girls, and the rumours were that it was an asylum seeker who arrived on a boat and it was a Muslim extremist, and that wasn't the case. 'So I think what the police have done very, very quickly, and I've never known a case like this before where they've given the ethnicity and the race of the individual who was involved in it, so I think that was to dampen down some of the speculation from the far-right that sort of continues on X even as we speak that this was a Muslim extremist and there's a conspiracy theory.' In March, Chief Constable Serena Kennedy told MPs she wanted to dispel disinformation in the immediate aftermath of the Southport murders by releasing information about attacker Axel Rudakubana's religion, because he came from a Christian family, but was told not to by local crown prosecutors. Police did disclose that the suspect was a 17-year-old male from Banks in Lancashire, who was born in Cardiff. Widespread rioting followed the murders, with some disorder targeting mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers. Mayor of the Liverpool City Region Steve Rotheram backed the force's unusual decision to release the information about the Liverpool suspect so quickly. He told reporters: 'If you have a look at my timeline, there was somebody very quickly saying 'Why are you lying? There's been another incident in another part of the city', which obviously wasn't true, and then they were trying to stir it up who might be responsible for it. 'That's why I think the police acted… to dampen that sort of speculation, because it was designed to inflame. It was designed to divide.' Asked if he would like to see similar details released in the future in similar cases, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: 'That is a matter for the police and the investigation is ongoing so I think we need to leave that to them. 'I think today is a day really for thinking about all those impacted by this and being absolutely clear that we stand with them.'
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Police naming Liverpool parade suspect's ethnicity may cause future ‘challenges'
Merseyside police's decision to release details of the ethnicity of the suspect in the Liverpool parade collision could raise 'difficulties and challenges' for forces in the future, a former superintendent has said. Merseyside police said they arrested a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area about two hours after the incident that left dozens of people, including four children, injured. Dal Babu, who was a senior Met officer, told the Guardian's First Edition that the decision was 'unprecedented', but he could envisage pressure being applied to forces in future to release details on the racial background of suspects. 'It doesn't take rocket science to predict what will happen: the far right will twist this and say, 'right, you've named [the race] because it's a white person. Why aren't you naming [the race of] the next person?' And it will present some difficulties and challenges to the police', he said. Babu stressed the decision had been 'correct' to share the information on this occasion to combat 'racist and Islamophobic misinformation' on social media, while warning that every decision should be taken on a case by case basis. 'You could imagine a situation where the far right will say, 'Oh, you haven't named the ethnicity of this person and that's because they are a person of colour',' he said. 'It's really important that people don't see it as a precedent because every incident will be different. People may feel in a future incident that they're entitled to know the ethnicity and race, and it may not be appropriate to release it,' he said. A senior legal source said there could be circumstances where naming the ethnicity of a suspect could cause riots rather than quell them. 'What will a force do if they arrest someone in similar circumstances who is recently arrived on a small boat or who has a clearly Muslim name? They will now be under huge pressure to name them,' the source said. Far-right extremists used social media within minutes of the Liverpool tragedy to exploit the scenes of horror, the Guardian has been told. One account claimed the incident was a terrorist attack. Another account also made false claims including that the man arrested by police at the scene was really a Muslim, despite what police had said. Merseyside police were criticised after the Southport murders last summer for not releasing more information after false rumours were started online that the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker. For Merseyside police, Monday night's decision to release details about the suspect's race and nationality was not a precedent. 'They believe in this case it was right, with detectives convinced the suspect detained was the only person they were looking for. It might not be right in a case where the identity of a suspect was unclear and where identity could be an issue at trial,' a source said. In March, chief constable Serena Kennedy told MPs she wanted to dispel disinformation in the immediate aftermath of the Southport murders by releasing information about attacker Axel Rudakubana's religion, because he came from a Christian family, but was told not to by local crown prosecutors. Police did disclose that the suspect was a 17-year-old male from Banks in Lancashire, who was born in Cardiff. Widespread rioting followed the murders, with some disorder targeting mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers. Jonathan Hall KC, the government's official reviewer of terrorism legislation, told the Guardian that Merseyside's decision on Monday evening should set a precedent for future incidents. 'The authorities seemed to have learned the lessons of Southport. 'It should be a precedent, while recognising there will be the odd case where you need to say little or nothing. Transparency is the right precedent.' Hall said if a suspect in a high-profile case was a Muslim asylum seeker: 'You have to do that as well.' Nick Lowles, of Hope Not Hate, a leading group monitoring the far right, said: 'Police have learned lessons after Southport. What they did this time was to fill the void, putting information out as soon as possible. 'If it had been a terrorist attack, I'm not sure anything would have calmed tensions down.' The decision to release details was an operational matter and therefore separate from government, Whitehall sources said. Asked if he would like to see similar details released in the future in similar cases, the prime minister, Keir Starmer, said: 'That is a matter for the police and the investigation is ongoing so I think we need to leave that to them. 'I think today is a day really for thinking about all those impacted by this and being absolutely clear that we stand with them.'
The Guardian
27-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Police naming Liverpool parade suspect's ethnicity may cause future ‘challenges'
Merseyside police's decision to release details of the ethnicity of the suspect in the Liverpool parade collision could raise 'difficulties and challenges' for forces in the future, a former superintendent has said. Merseyside police said they arrested a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area about two hours after the incident that left dozens of people, including four children, injured. Dal Babu, who was a senior Met officer, told the Guardian's First Edition that the decision was 'unprecedented', but he could envisage pressure being applied to forces in future to release details on the racial background of suspects. 'It doesn't take rocket science to predict what will happen: the far right will twist this and say, 'right, you've named him because it's a white person. Why aren't you naming the next person?' And it will present some difficulties and challenges to the police', he said. Babu stressed the decision had been 'correct' to share the information on this occasion to combat 'racist and Islamophobic misinformation' on social media, while warning that every decision should be taken on a case by case basis. 'You could imagine a situation where the far right will say, 'Oh, you haven't named the ethnicity of this person and that's because they are a person of colour',' he said. 'It's really important that people don't see it as a precedent because every incident will be different. People may feel in a future incident that they're entitled to know the ethnicity and race and it may not be appropriate to release it,' he said. A senior legal source said there could be circumstances where naming the ethnicity of a suspect could cause riots rather than quell them. 'What will a force do if they arrest someone in similar circumstances who is recently arrived on a small boat or who has a clearly Muslim name? They will now be under huge pressure to name them,' the source said. Far-right extremists used social media within minutes of the Liverpool tragedy to exploit the scenes of horror, the Guardian has been told. One account claimed the incident was a terrorist attack. Another account also made false claims including that the man arrested by police at the scene was really a Muslim, despite what police had said. Merseyside police were criticised in the wake of the Southport murders last summer for not releasing more information after false rumours were started online that the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker. For Merseyside police, Monday night's decision to release details about the suspect's race and nationality was not a precedent. 'They believe in this case it was right, with detectives convinced the suspect detained was the only person they were looking for. It might not be right in a case where the identity of a suspect was unclear and where identity could be an issue at trial, a source said. In March, chief constable Serena Kennedy told MPs she wanted to dispel disinformation in the immediate aftermath of the Southport murders by releasing information about attacker Axel Rudakubana's religion, because he came from a Christian family, but was told not to by local crown prosecutors. Police did disclose that the suspect was a 17-year-old male from Banks in Lancashire, who was born in Cardiff. Widespread rioting followed the murders, with some disorder targeting mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers. Jonathan Hall KC, the government's official reviewer of terrorism legislation, told the Guardian that Merseyside's decision on Monday evening should set a precedent for future incidents. 'The authorities seemed to have learned the lessons of Southport. 'It should be a precedent, while recognising there will be the odd case where you need to say little or nothing. Transparency is the right precedent.' Hall said if a suspect in a high-profile case was a Muslim asylum seeker: 'You have to do that as well.' Nick Lowles, of Hope Not Hate, a leading group monitoring the far right, said: 'Police have learned lessons after Southport. What they did this time was to fill the void, putting information out as soon as possible. 'If it had been a terrorist attack, I'm not sure anything would have calmed tensions down.' The decision to release details was an operational matter, and therefore separate from government, Whitehall sources said. Asked if he would like to see similar details released in the future in similar cases, the prime minister, Keir Starmer, said: 'That is a matter for the police and the investigation is ongoing so I think we need to leave that to them. 'I think today is a day really for thinking about all those impacted by this and being absolutely clear that we stand with them.'
Telegraph
27-05-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Do not expect us to release every suspect's ethnicity, say police
Police forces have said they will not release the ethnicity of every suspect in the wake of the incident in Liverpool on Monday The driver of a car that ploughed into crowds during Liverpool football club's victory parade was described as 'white British' hours after being arrested on Monday. In the wake of the Southport killings in 2024, Merseyside Police was heavily criticised for allowing a void of information about the perpetrator, Axel Rudakubana, which was filled with misinformation, including that he was a Muslim asylum seeker. Keen to avoid a potentially similar situation, the force said Monday's suspect was a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area just two hours after the incident took place. Usually when a suspect is arrested, police forces in England and Wales disclose the age of the person and where they were arrested, but there is no national guidance about what information to release and it is ultimately at the discretion of the chief constable, sources said. They added that revealing suspects' nationalities would not happen in every case because it was not always relevant and may be an issue at trial in some cases. 'Given the events that followed the Southport attack there is obviously a heightened awareness of when information should be released to the public to prevent misinformation spreading,' one source said. Dal Babu, a former chief superintendent of the Metropolitan Police, said the decision to release the ethnicity of the suspect so early was highly unusual. Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, he said: 'What we do have, which is unprecedented, is the police very quickly giving the ethnicity and the race of the person who was driving the vehicle. 'It was Merseyside Police who didn't give that information with the Southport horrific murders of those three girls, and the rumours were that it was an asylum seeker who arrived on a boat and it was a Muslim extremist and that wasn't the case. 'So I think what the police have done very very quickly, and I've never known a case like this before where they've given the ethnicity and the race of the individual who was involved in it. 'I think that was to dampen down some of the speculation from the far-Right that sort of continues on X even as we speak that this was a Muslim extremist and there's a conspiracy theory.' Violent disorder broke out in the Southport area in the aftermath of the attack and there was widespread rioting across the country. Mr Babu said Merseyside Police had clearly learnt lessons from the Southport attack and was trying a new strategy to quell false narratives forming early. He said: '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 and we had massive public disorder after the far-right extremists had spread these rumours.' Steve Rotheram, the mayor of Liverpool, defended the force's decision to release the ethnicity of the suspect. He said: 'If you looked on social media, already within minutes of the incident being posted, there was speculation from some nefarious groups [who] were trying to stir up speculation around who was responsible for it. 'The whole idea was to put to bed the misinformation and disinformation that was out there to calm people.' Merseyside Police held a press conference four and a half hours after the attack in which they provided further information, including the fact the man arrested was believed to be the driver of the vehicle, rather than a passenger. They also stated that the incident was not being treated as terrorism. Asst Chief Constable Jenny Sims said: 'Extensive enquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances leading up to the collision and it is vital that people do not speculate or spread misinformation on social media.'
Irish Times
27-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Speed of release of race and ethnicity of Liverpool suspect ‘unprecedented'
The speed at which police released the race and ethnicity of the suspect in the Liverpool car incident is 'unprecedented', a former chief superintendent has said. Merseyside Police confirmed they had a arrested a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area about two hours after the incident that left dozens of people, including four children, hurt. The force was criticised in the wake of the Southport murders last summer for not releasing more information after false rumours were started online that the killer of three young girls was a Muslim asylum seeker. Former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent Dal Babu told BBC Radio 5 Live: 'What we do have, which is unprecedented, is the police very quickly giving the ethnicity and the race of the person who was driving the vehicle ... and it was Merseyside Police who didn't give that information with the Southport horrific murders of those three girls, and the rumours were that it was an asylum seeker who arrived on a boat and it was a Muslim extremist and that wasn't the case. READ MORE 'So I think what the police have done very, very quickly, and I've never known a case like this before where they've given the ethnicity and the race of the individual who was involved in it, so I think that was to dampen down some of the speculation from the far-right that sort of continues on X even as we speak that this was a Muslim extremist and there's a conspiracy theory.' In March Chief Constable Serena Kennedy told MPs she wanted to dispel disinformation in the immediate aftermath of the Southport murders by releasing information about the attacker Axel Rudakubana's religion, as he came from a Christian family, but was told not to by local crown prosecutors. Police did disclose that the suspect was a 17-year-old male from Banks in Lancashire, who was born in Cardiff. Widespread rioting followed the murders, with some disorder targeting mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers. − PA
