Dal Babu, former Chief Superintendent at the Metropolitan Police, claimed that Merseyside Police released "unprecedented" details about the Liverpool car crash suspect. Shortly after the suspect was brought in for questioning, their age, ethnicity and race was announced to the public.
The same police force did not provide the same information in the immediate aftermath of the Southport attack in July 2024, when three girls were murdered. But Dabu claims that Merseyside Police have learned from previous incidents and took preventive action to stop misinformation from spreading online.
He told BBC 5 Live: “I think [releasing the suspect's ethnicity in this case] was to dampen down some of the speculation from the far right, that continues on X even as we speak, that this was a Muslim extremist."
Dabu described the announcement as “remarkably striking” as police will typically not release this kind of information because they will be worried about prejudicing any future trial. But the former police chief claimed that “they need to balance that against the potential of public disorder”.
Merseyside Police, in the hours that followed the crash into a crowd gathered to celebrate Liverpool Football Club's Premier League trophy parade, confirmed that they are quizzing a 53-year-old suspect, stressing that the person is a "white male" and the incident is not being treated as terror-related.
A few hours after the "unprecedented" information was released, an extensive news conference was held, during which police ruled out terrorism as a motive. They appealed for videos not to be shared online and for people not to speculate.
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