Sunderland city councillor Glen Gibbins, 66, has been convicted of making “grossly offensive” comments about the city’s Nigerian community. The former Reform UK councillor, elected in May, was found guilty after a three-hour trial at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court.
Gibbins, of Briar Vale Road, had made the comments on Facebook in March 2024. He has previously accepted that the comments were offensive but not that they were grossly so, which is the criminal threshold.
Trial and evidence
In court, the suspended councillor gave evidence saying his comment, which suggested that Nigerians be melted down and used to fill potholes, had been “naughty”, but he did not mean it literally. As such, he denied breaching the Communications Act.
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!!” [sic]
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”.
Community reaction
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 Gibbins had already been suspended by Reform UK after the post came to light and he did not attend 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.”
Defence and verdict
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.
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.
The verdict was given by a sitting district judge. The court found that the nature of Gibbins’ remarks had crossed the threshold of being “grossly offensive” to reasonable members of the public.
Christopher Atkinson from the Crown Prosecution Service in the North East said: “Racially charged and grossly offensive comments like this cross the line between free speech and criminal behaviour. They can be particularly upsetting and dehumanising for those in affected communities.”
“I would remind anyone using social media that grossly offensive commentary of the type used by Glenn Gibbins is a criminal offence, and those posting similar material could face prosecution as a result of their actions.” Gibbins is set to be sentenced later on Monday.
