{"id":4654,"date":"2026-11-13T12:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T12:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/?p=4654"},"modified":"2026-11-13T12:17:19","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T12:17:19","slug":"uk-court-convicts-suspended-reform-councillor-over-facebook-post-calling-for-nigerians-to-be-melted-down-to-fill-portholes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/?p=4654","title":{"rendered":"UK Court Convicts Suspended Reform Councillor Over Facebook Post, Calling for Nigerians to Be &#8220;Melted Down&#8221; to Fill Portholes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\" data-attachment-id=\"4655\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/?attachment_id=4655\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/1000880962.jpg?fit=600%2C375&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"600,375\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"1000880962\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/1000880962.jpg?fit=600%2C375&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/1000880962.jpg?resize=600%2C375&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4655\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/1000880962.jpg?w=600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/1000880962.jpg?resize=300%2C188&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A suspended Reform UK councillor, Glenn Gibbins, has been convicted of sending a grossly offensive message on Facebook in which he said Nigerians should be melted down and used to fill potholes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gibbins, 66, who sits on Sunderland City Council, was found guilty of a malicious communication following a trial at South Tyneside Magistrates&#8217; Court on Monday, November 9. He had denied breaching the Communications Act, telling the court the post was a &#8220;tongue-in-cheek&#8221; joke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The court sentenced him to 150 hours of unpaid work as part of a 12-month community order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The post, published in March 2024, two years before he was elected, read: &#8220;Carnt believe the amount of Nigerians in town\u2026 should melt them all down and fill in the pot holes!!&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It came to light when the anti-racism group Hope Not Hate went through his social media posts after he was announced as a Reform UK candidate for Sunderland City Council. Police were informed after he was elected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Prosecuting, Emma Dowling told the court: &#8220;The comment about melting them down conjures up despicable images.&#8221; She said the remark implied that Nigerians were &#8220;somewhat less than human, stripping people in that group of humanity.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reform UK had already suspended Gibbins after the post surfaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His legal team will appeal the verdict at the crown court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A suspended Reform UK councillor, Glenn Gibbins, has been convicted of sending a grossly offensive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4654"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4657,"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654\/revisions\/4657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}