Dozens of people have been injured after a car ploughed into a crowd of people during Liverpool FC’s Premier League victory parade on Monday. It took Merseyside Police less than two hours to reveal the ethnicity and nationality of the suspect. Contrast that with the lack of information following the Southport murders and subsequent riots last summer, and it’s clear the force has learnt lessons from the past. Report by Jonesia. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00These are the scenes Liverpool fans hope to remember from Monday.
00:06A city-wide celebration of the team's Premier League title win, their first in five years.
00:13Instead, jubilation turned to devastation after a car drove into fans in Water Street at around 6pm, injuring close to 50 people.
00:23Thoughts were with the victims, an admiration for the emergency services and members of the public who rushed to help.
00:31The car stopped at the scene and a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area was arrested.
00:38We believe him to be the driver of the vehicle. The incident is not being treated as terrorism.
00:46It took Merseyside Police less than two hours to reveal the ethnicity and nationality of the suspect.
00:53And, as morning broke on Tuesday, questions were beginning to be asked about the speed with which the information was released,
01:01with one former Chief Superintendent describing it as unprecedented.
01:06Last summer, the same force was criticised in the wake of the Southport murders for not releasing more information about the suspect,
01:14as false rumours spread online that the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker.
01:19Police did disclose that the suspect was a 17-year-old male from Banks in Lancashire, who was born in Cardiff.
01:26But widespread rioting followed the murders, with some disorder targeting mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers.
01:34One Chief Constable said later that she wanted to dispel disinformation in the immediate aftermath
01:40by releasing information about attacker Axel Rudicabana's Christian background,
01:45but was told not to by local Crown prosecutors.
01:49Under the Contempt of Court Act 1981, information that could prejudice a trial should not be reported,
01:57making the level of detail released by police on Monday even more unusual.
02:02However, local politicians in Liverpool have backed the police's decision,
02:07and urged people to be cautious about where they get their information.
02:11Social media platforms have a job to make sure that lies are perpetrated on these platforms,
02:17that, you know, create hostilities within our communities.
02:21You know, your news outlets provide accurate, up-to-date information,
02:26and I would urge people, you know, to be wary about how they get their information
02:30and what they do with that information.
02:32I mean, if you believe some of the stories in the immediacy of what happened,
02:36that might have frightened people and caused even more concern and distress.
02:40Really, it's about what the police are saying
02:43and what the agencies that support the police are saying.
02:46However, too much information can pose its own dangers.
02:50In 2010, Christopher Jeffries was arrested over the death of Joanna Yates.
02:55He was innocent, but hardly treated as such in the days after his name was made public.
03:00In recent years, the law has prioritised the privacy of suspects.
03:04In 2023, Lancashire Police was criticised for revealing highly sensitive personal information about Nicola Bully,
03:12a 45-year-old mother of two who went missing and whose body was found in the River Wyatt three weeks later.
03:19A review found the force failed to adequately fill the information vacuum
03:24and allowed speculation to run unchecked.
03:27This morning, the Prime Minister was asked if Merseyside Police's decision yesterday
03:32could set a precedent for similar future cases.
03:35Well, that is a matter for the police and the investigation is ongoing,
03:39so I think we need to leave that to them.
03:41I think today is a day really for thinking about all those impacted by this
03:45and being absolutely clear that we stand with them.
03:49Having criticised Merseyside Police's hesitant communication last summer,
03:54Reform UK leader Nigel Farage commended them this time around.
03:58It led to a big gap. Conspiracy theories on social media.
04:02I called. Please tell us. Just tell us what it is.
04:05I think the riots would have been nowhere near as bad last year if we'd known the truth.
04:10And I think this time Merseyside Police have got it right.
04:13Will police now be expected to state a suspect's ethnicity and nationality in future cases?
04:19And will that information inflame or ease tensions?
04:23Or feed rather than dispel false narratives?
04:27Deciding what information should and should not be released early on
04:31presents an unenviable future challenge for police forces up and down the country.