I was branded a paedophile by far-right trolls who stoked riots – even Facebook pram ads hide dangerous hotbed of lies

THE anti-immigration riots that erupted across Britain this summer sent shockwaves across the nation.

Violence broke out outside Suites Hotel in Kirkby, Knowsley, in Merseyside, when around 300 people gathered outside the hotel, which was providing temporary accommodation for asylum seekers.

It was after the far-right group English Defence League (EDL) called for a protest.

Seven men have since been jailed for their part in the riot.

Meanwhile, a stabbing in Southport, which saw three young children killed at a holiday club in July, led to further widespread anger and fear, and far-right groups used it to stir anti-immigrant sentiments and provoke violence​​ across the UK.

More than 1,200 arrests and nearly 800 charges had been made in relation to the unrest so far.

Now, a new BBC Three documentary, Small Town, Big Riot, uncovers just how these violent riots started, fuelled by local Facebook groups.

Shockingly, journalist Mobeen Azhar, who presents the two-part series, discovered that members of far-right groups often start by pretending to be locals innocently organising community events or getting rid of old furniture.

In an exclusive interview, he tells us: "In these groups, people might be organising a bake sale. They might be saying, 'I'm getting rid of a dining table, or I'm getting rid of my old pram.'

"They don't necessarily have hundreds of thousands of followers but they've got local followers. What will happen is you'll get two or three people that enter these groups, and they just start agitating.

"So at first it might just be a post about local housing or the local charity shop, or the fact that another food bank has opened recently, and then you'll see over a timeline, these posts will increase, and then they'll start talking about the threat from immigrants.

"And then you'll see more and more people will come in, and quite quickly, these groups will go from being purely about community, swapping furniture or organising things for charity, to being explicitly anti-immigration groups.”

'Disturbing' memes

Mobeen recalls a disturbing meme he saw on a Facebook group called Liverpool Enough Is Enough, which had 6,300 followers but now no longer exists.

Mobeen says: "It was an image of an inflatable boat full of people. I don't know where the picture was taken or anything. It had no context.

“And underneath the picture had an image of a pin, and it said, 'Would you pop the boat?'

"The comments underneath were the disturbing part, because he had lots of local people saying, 'I'd definitely pop the boat. They deserve it.'

"You had people engaging in this stuff as if it was kind of banter or if it was acceptable. You cannot underestimate the radicalising effect it can have, because that's what it is, it’s online radicalisation."

He adds: "It was an open group, anyone could join. I saw that group over the time we were filming getting more and more and more extreme."

3 killed in knife attack

Several months into filming, riots broke out in Southport after three children, Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and six-year-old Bebe King were killed in a knife attack at a holiday club in July.

A 17-year-old boy called Axel Rudakubana has been charged with their murders and is set to stand trial next year.

Rudakubana, now 18, has also been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder after eight other children and two adults were seriously injured in the attack at the Hart Space, a community studio in the Meols Cop area of Southport.

Far-right groups and social media also played a significant role in escalating the situation.

Mobeen says they quickly saw that the same “sophisticated model” was being used by far-right groups, including one called Patriotic Alternative.

He says: “That model was used in Southport.

“Time and time again, we saw groups like Patriotic Alternative presenting themselves, certainly online, but even in the flesh, as local people who just had concerns.

"But I would argue strongly, and I think there's a lot of evidence to suggest they have a very clear agenda, which is very clearly, to me, a far-right and racist agenda.”

He continues: “It is sophisticated and we shouldn't underestimate the power of these groups in getting in touch with people who have a local following.

"They're not kind of fully paid up ideological members of a far-right group. But that doesn't stop their following being leaped upon."

Branded a paedophile

The award-winning journalist also reveals how he found himself at the centre of a “live disinformation story” during filming, after an online post claimed he had been approaching teenage girls.

Mobeen says: "It was absolutely horrible. I was disgusted, but it also really illustrated that I was part of a live disinformation story.

"For months, I'd been hearing these stories about men approaching girls in the park and asking where I could verify if this had actually happened. And most of the time, overwhelmingly, evidence just never materialised.

"In this instance, I knew for a fact that myself and the team had not approached underage girls. We are so careful when we're speaking to anyone that even looks remotely young, to say to them: ‘I'm not sure if we can speak to you, how old are you?’ before we say anything else.

"In order to put someone in a documentary, if they're under 16, you need to get their parents' permission. Their parents need to be there.”

He adds: “These were just complete lies that were told about myself.

"Again, they spread like wildfire and I was upset and angry about the original post but I'd say the comments underneath told me so much about the mindset of people and the lack of accountability."

'No responsibility'

One of the main places where far-right memes can be found is That Scouse Kid, an anonymous account, with 42,000 followers on Instagram.

After months of contacting ther person behind the account, Mobeen got an interview with him.

He says: “There was a really interesting distinction, because I said, 'Do you feel guilty about what's happened?' 'Do you take any responsibility?'

“He makes a distinction. He says, 'No, I don't, because I didn't organise the riot. I just promoted it.'

"And so my point is, a lot of these people, they perhaps didn't get into creating memes, and they didn't get into kind of having a following because they necessarily wanted to cause trouble.

"But I think there's a naivety there about organisations coming in and leapfrogging off their followings and exploiting the people who are following them. And I think that's what we saw time and time again.

"And I have to say, overwhelmingly, it tends to be working class communities where there's a really complicated set of issues, you know, historic lack of investment, social deprivation, lack of housing, all of those things.

"And then you get people who sweep in and offer very, very simple answers to these very complicated problems."

Small Town, Big Riot is available to watch on BBC iPlayer and on BBC Three on Monday September 23 and Tuesday September 24, at 9pm