A suspended Reform candidate who said Nigerians should be melted down to ‘fill in the pot holes’ has been found guilty.
Glenn Gibbins was convicted of a malicious communication two years before he was elected as a councillor for Hylton Castle Ward in Sunderland in early May.
In now deleted posts, he ranted on social media he ‘carnt [sic] believe amount of Nigerians in town’ and they ‘should melt them all down and fill in the pot holes’.
Gibbins, who was suspended by Reform UK after the post came to light, told a court it was ‘naughty’, but he did not mean it literally.
The councillor argued his post was not grossly offensive, but Emma Dowling, prosecuting, said: ‘The comment about melting them down conjures up despicable images.’
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She said it implied that Nigerians were ‘somewhat less than human, stripping people in that group of humanity’.
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