A CLAIM SHARED widely on social media in the past 24 hours has alleged that the assailant in a fatal multiple stabbing incident in northern England was an asylum seeker.
Three children were killed and more than a dozen other people – most of them children – were injured during the knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the town of Southport on the morning of 29 July.
Shortly afterwards, police in the UK arrested a 17-year-old boy on suspicion of murder and attempted murder during the attack.
Social media soon flooded with false claims that the assailant is an asylum seeker, with those claims now being shared by Irish social media users on X and Facebook.
Versions of these claims have been seen millions of times on both platforms despite there being no evidence to back them up.
The identity of the person arrested is not known, as is standard in all cases where a person has yet to be charged and in most UK cases involving children (as this one does).
Police in the UK have stated that the suspect who is being questioned was born in Wales and that they do not currently believe the stabbing to be terror-related.
The claim first appears to have been made by a US-based account on X called Channel3 Now, which describes itself as a news account and made the allegation in two since-deleted posts on the platform in the aftermath of the stabbing on 29 July.
“17-year-old Ali Al-Shakati from Banks has been arrested in connection with the Southport stabbings and is currently in police custody,” one post began.
“Ali Al-Shakati was on the MI6 watchlist and known to Liverpool mental health services.”
The second post added: “He was an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK by boat last year.”
The initial asylum seeker claim was picked up by a number of prominent far-right and anti-immigrant accounts on X, where it was seen millions of times.
Outlets including Russia’s RT news channel (a Kremlin-backed outlet which has been banned in Europe) also reported the claim as fact, citing Channel3 Now’s post, and the claim eventually made it into Irish groups on Facebook the messaging app Telegram.
Many of those who repeated the claim leaned into racist tropes about asylum seekers and foreign people.
Some suggested that the attacker was a Muslim terrorist who carried out the attack because they hated Western values; others xenophobically said that the individual was an example why people from abroad present a danger to women and children – a claim often heard by those with hardline views on immigration, despite it having no basis.
One post on Telegram by The Irish Inquiry, a self-described “news/media company” that regularly spreads misinformation about everything from vaccines to asylum seekers, also referenced the Channel3 Now post (though it not directly cite the source of its claim).
“Online unverified social media posts have claimed that the person responsible for stabbing 8 little girls today is an asylum seeker,” the Telegram post began.
It referenced the same false claims that the suspect was on an MI5 watchlist and also raised questions about his religion and background.
“It has not been reported what his religious background may have been. If he turns out not to be from Wales, it would be interesting to see what proof they have of his age,” the post continued.”
The post then referenced a claim made by anti-immigrant figures in the UK that a significant number of male asylum seekers arriving in the UK were pretending to be children, though Home Office data last year found it to be around 1% of applicants.
Irish Facebook groups also repeated the baseless claim that the Southport attacker was an asylum seeker, both directly and indirectly.
Some directly re-shared screenshots of social media posts by Channel3 Now, while others repeated versions of the claim by referencing aspects of those posts, such as the suspect’s “name” and that he was “known” to MI6 and Liverpool mental health services.
One page didn’t reference any of these details, but merely stated the facts that are known about the case while also sharing a report that “6.1% of all asylum seekers [in the UK] are homed in Liverpool”, the nearest major city to where the attack took place.
At the time of writing, details about the case are somewhat scant because the suspect in the case has yet to be charged.
As mentioned above, even in the event that the suspect is charged – and that is not currently a given – it’s possible that they will remain anonymous because they are under the age of 18.
Merseyside Police, who continue to question the suspect, have issued statements giving some details about the background of the person who was arrested.
The most recent statement says that officers arrested a 17-year-old male from Banks (a village near Southport) on 29 July and that incorrect details about the suspect had been shared online.
“A name has been shared on social media in connection with the suspect in the incident in Southport,” it read.
“This name is incorrect and we would urge people not to speculate on details of the incident while the investigation is ongoing.”
A previous statement issued on the day of the stabbing also said the suspect was born in Cardiff in Wales.
Police also say they are still seeking a motive for the stabbings, but do not believe the incident was terror related.
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