Gavin Grey: UK Correspondent on the far right attack on a mosque after the Southport stabbing

A UK community continues to grieve after this week’s fatal stabbings. 

Three children died and five more are critically injured in the Merseyside city of Southport. 

A 17-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder. 

Hundreds of protesters clashed with police outside a mosque yesterday, after false claims circulated. 

UK Correspondent Gavin Grey told Mike Hosking there were rumours circulating on social media that the main suspect was an illegal immigrant. 

He said that far right extremists then went to a mosque in Southport and began to throw bricks at it, despite being told the incident had nothing to do with that mosque, nor a terrorist attack. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the UK hot seat today, Devin Gray Gavin, very
good morning to you. Hi, don't Mike just explain to us.
I mean Southport. We all know what happened in the
original attack, but it exploded. You got any number of
officers injured, you got people in hospital, you got the
police dogged. What the hell happened?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yeah? Well, there were rumors on social media that the
teenager who was being the main suspect being questioned by
police was an illegal migrant. Now we know his parents
were from Rwanda, but he was actually born in the
UK and Cardiff and then moved to the northwest of
England early in his life. And this information the authorities
misinformation tried to stamp on, but lots of far right

(00:38):
people said, right, we've got to crack down on these illegals.
They immediately went to a mosque in Southport began to
throw bricks at it, even though they were told this
has got nothing to do with that mosco or indeed
a terrorist attack or anything like that. There was a
bit of a social media call to arms, as it were,
I suspect on the far right, and there were people

(00:59):
not just from south all that area, but actually from
a quite wide area in the UK. Now, I have
to tell you Southport tonight is actually tense but quite quiet. However, Mike,
believe it or not, there's almost a semi right now
outside Downing Street where more people, it would appear from
the right wing English Defense League supporters are said to

(01:20):
be protesting there. They are very angry at the government
not doing enough to stop the small boats, and they
are questioning the police saying this has nothing to do
with any asylum seeking.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
And do we have any sense of the motive yet
for the seventeen year old.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
No, and that's going to be absolutely key to I
think quelling some of these rumors, and that is why
some are getting a little bit critical of the police, saying, look,
we really need some more information. But of course, by law,
the suspect is under age, so we're not going to
be told his name. He's entitled to anonymity in this
country and until it actually, if it actually goes to court,

(01:58):
you know, we won't know very much at all about it.
But I think it's this social media has absolutely burnt
like wildfire about the origin of that attack, and it's
led to these ruts.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
How in general terms, Gevin and you go back to
Leeds a couple I can't remember. It was a couple
of weeks ago, whatever it was. How igy is Britain.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Well, I wouldn't have said it was edgy much, but
I have to say, you're in the middle of a
heat wave here. It's just before ten at night. It's
probably still twenty six twenty seven celsius and that always
does tend. I know from my contacts in the police
they always say, you know that is always sets people
off a little bit. But I didn't think it was
too bad. However, there is this massive concern which I

(02:40):
don't hang any single politician of the main parties as
really grasp how serious people feel about this, and that
is migration and the numbers coming into this country, particularly
of those that we don't know anything about, and this
I think is at the heart of this particular issue.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Then we come to hewid would so from Christ I
suppose is complete?

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yes, very much so. So. Today Hugh Edwards had pleaded
guilty to effectively some very very serious offenses. He pleaded
guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.
He accessed in decent images of children as young as
seven on WhatsApp over a year long period a couple

(03:24):
of years back, and police says that they were sent
to him by a convicted pedophile. Now it's slightly misleading
to say he was found guilty of making indecent images
when actually he didn't do anything other than receive and download.
But the definition is there and he pleaded guilty. We
expect him to be sentenced soon. But plenty of questions

(03:45):
here Mike for the BBC, where of course he was
their main news presenter and hanker saying what did you
know and when and why was he still allowed to
be on staff. They are saying we knew he was
arrested in November, but if he had physically been charged
then he would have been sacked, and he was not
charged until he left in April.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
How would you describe him, Gevin, given we don't get
him here obviously? Was he loved and esteemed and this
has been just a complete and utter shock or now
that we know, do we go A YEA well, that
was old human rumors forever as.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
An outsider to the BBC, a complete and utter shock.
He was somebody that held the hand of the nation
through the Queen's death. He was the one that announced
it to most of the nation on television and also
the King's current nation. He's been the general election host
as well, so you know, this is somebody who's been
huge for the last twenty thirty years now I have

(04:40):
presented with you Edwards. He was always very very nice
to me. However, you know, there were rumors of a
difficult side to him, somebody that could be, you know,
verging on being very difficult to work with. As I said,
I never found that, but certainly those are one or
two people coming forward now with those allegations as.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
A pleasure might go. Well, we'll catch up against him
and Gray out of the UK for us this morning.
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