Sunderland councillor Glenn Gibbons tells court he did not mean 'naughty' social media post about melting down Nigerians

Sunderland City councillor Glenn Gibbins, 66, denies breaching the Communications Act by posting a grossly offensive message on Facebook in March 2024, two years before he was elected.

He is on trial at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court where his case is that the post was not grossly offensive.

The post came to light when the group Hope Not Hate went through his social media posts when Gibbins was announced as a Reform UK candidate for Sunderland City Council.

Police were informed after he was successfully voted in.

He posted: “Carnt believe the amount of nigerians in town… should melt them all down and fill in the pot holes!!”

Emma Dowling, prosecuting, said: “The comment about melting them down conjures up despicable images.”

She said it implied that Nigerians were “somewhat less than human, stripping people in that group of humanity”.

Godwin Ejeh, a community leader for Nigerians in Sunderland, gave evidence to say he led a protest outside the City Hall building when Gibbins should have been sworn in, hoping that the councillor would apologise.

But the Hylton Castle ward councillor had already been suspended by Reform UK after the post came to light and he did not attended the ceremony.

Mr Ejeh, who stood as a Liberal Democrat councillor in the May elections, denied trying to make political capital from the situation, telling the court: “We are talking about humanity here. It’s way beyond politics.”

Gibbins, a divorced former salesman who runs a stall in Sunderland city centre printing novelty gifts, told the court: “I thought it was a tongue in cheek joke.

“It was an unreal scenario. No-one took it literally.”

He explained how he had set up his business in The Bridges shopping centre and recalled on the day he made the post that some Nigerians had approached him about buying some of his printing equipment.

Gibbins recalled he had “banter” with the Nigerians at his stall and that the conversation was good fun.

That night, after “a couple of cans of beer”, he said he saw a post on Facebook about Nigerians which he tried to share without success, so he typed it out himself and posted it to his public Facebook profile.

When Ms Dowling asked him what reaction he intended to cause, he said: “It was tongue-in-cheek, a bit naughty, but I thought it was fun.”

Speaking of the earlier interaction with the Nigerians at his stall, he said: “They had done my head in, in a funny way not a bad way.”

When she asked what was funny about the post, Gibbins replied: “It’s an unreal scenario, you cannot melt people down, anyone that takes that literally… you cannot do that.”

He added: “I wouldn’t dream of joking about killing people.”

He explained he was not particularly political and when he was approached by Reform UK about becoming a councillor in March this year, he considered it would be a source of income “to tide me over” when business was quieter in the summer.

He also said he enjoyed helping residents in the brief period when he was not suspended.

Ms Dowling, summarising the prosecution case, said the post was grossly offensive and dehumanising.

She said it was shared “for no reason whatsoever other than to offend and humiliate people from Nigeria who live in Sunderland”.

Adam King, defending, said the post was “unfunny” and “an unpleasant joke/non-joke”.

He said professional comedians such as Jo Brand had joked about throwing acid on Nigel Farage and Jimmy Carr about gypsies in the Holocaust and they had not been prosecuted.

Even if the district judge found the post was grossly offensive, she had to be sure Gibbins intended it to be and could be taken as such, Mr King said.

The district judge said she would give her verdict later on Monday.