A 66-year-old former UK councillor, Glenn Gibbins, has been sentenced to 12 months of community service for a Facebook post suggesting that Nigerians in Sunderland should be melted down and used to fill potholes.
Gibbins, a former Reform UK councillor, was convicted of making grossly offensive comments following a three-hour trial at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court, according to UK media outlet Chronicle Live.
District Judge Zoe Passfield sentenced him to a 12-month community order with 150 hours of unpaid work.
The conviction followed a Facebook post he made in March 2024, in which he wrote, “Can’t believe the amount of Nigerians in town… should melt them all down and fill in the potholes!!”
Gibbins admitted that the comment was offensive but denied that it was grossly offensive, arguing that it was intended as a joke and should not be taken literally.
According to Chronicle Live, the post came to light after anti-racism group Hope Not Hate reviewed his social media activities when he was announced as a Reform UK candidate for Sunderland City Council.
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Authorities were alerted after he was elected in May, while Reform UK suspended him following the emergence of the post.
During the trial, prosecuting counsel Emma Dowling said the remark was dehumanising and suggested that Nigerians were “somewhat less than human”.
“The comment about melting them down conjures up despicable images,” she said.
Dowling argued that the post was made without any justification other than to offend and humiliate Nigerians living in Sunderland.
A Nigerian community leader in Sunderland, Godwin Ejeh, told the court that he led a protest outside City Hall on the day Gibbins was expected to be sworn in, hoping the councillor would apologise.
Ejeh, who contested the May election as a Liberal Democrat councillor, denied seeking political advantage from the controversy.
“We are talking about humanity here; it’s way beyond politics,” he said.
In his defence, Gibbins described the post as a “tongue-in-cheek joke” and an “unreal scenario”.
He told the court that he had interacted with some Nigerians at his printing equipment stall in the Bridges shopping centre earlier that day, describing their exchange as good-natured banter.
He said he later came across a Facebook post about Nigerians, which he unsuccessfully attempted to share before typing his own message after drinking “a couple of cans of beer”.
“It was tongue-in-cheek, a bit naughty, but I thought it was fun,” he said.
Gibbins also insisted that he would not joke about killing people, arguing that melting humans was an impossible scenario.
His defence counsel, Adam King, described the post as “unfunny” and “an unpleasant joke/non-joke”, citing examples of comedians who had made controversial remarks without facing prosecution.
However, the court ruled that Gibbins’ comments crossed the threshold of gross offensiveness to reasonable members of the public.
Christopher Atkinson of the Crown Prosecution Service in the North East said racially charged and grossly offensive comments could cross the line between free speech and criminal behaviour.
He warned social media users that similar remarks could attract prosecution.
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