A United Kingdom court has convicted Sunderland councillor Glenn Gibbins over a Facebook post in which he suggested that Nigerians should be “melted down” and used to fill potholes.
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Gibbins, 66, was found guilty at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court after a trial in which he admitted that the comment was offensive but denied that it was grossly offensive.
District Judge Zoe Passfield sentenced him to a 12-month community order and ordered him to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.
The suspended Reform UK councillor made the post in March 2024, before his election to Sunderland City Council.
The comment later emerged after the campaign group Hope Not Hate reviewed his social media history when he was announced as a Reform UK candidate.
In the Facebook post, Gibbins wrote: “Can’t believe the amount of Nigerians in town… should melt them all down and fill in the potholes!!”
Prosecuting counsel Emma Dowling told the court that the statement was dehumanising and went beyond mere offensiveness.
“The comment about melting them down conjures up despicable images,” she said, arguing that it portrayed Nigerians as “somewhat less than human” and stripped them of their humanity.
Giving evidence, Nigerian community leader in Sunderland, Godwin Ejeh, said he led a protest outside the City Hall on the day Gibbins was expected to be sworn in as a councillor, hoping that he would apologise.
Gibbins had, however, already been suspended by Reform UK following the emergence of the post and did not attend the ceremony.
Ejeh, who stood as a Liberal Democrat candidate in the May elections, denied that the protest was politically motivated.
“We are talking about humanity here; it’s way beyond politics,” he told the court.
In his defence, Gibbins maintained that the post was intended as a joke and should not have been interpreted literally.
“I thought it was a tongue-in-cheek joke. It was an unreal scenario. No one took it literally,” he said.
Gibbins told the court that some Nigerians had visited his business stall at the Bridges shopping centre in Sunderland on the day he made the post to inquire about purchasing printing equipment.
He said they exchanged what he described as good-natured banter.
According to him, later that evening, after drinking “a couple of cans of beer”, he saw a Facebook post concerning Nigerians which he attempted unsuccessfully to share.
He then typed out the message himself and posted it on his public Facebook profile.
Asked by the prosecution what reaction he hoped to provoke, Gibbins said: “It was tongue-in-cheek, a bit naughty, but I thought it was fun.”
Referring to his earlier interaction with the Nigerians at his stall, he added: “They had done my head in, in a funny way, not a bad way.”
When asked what he considered funny about suggesting that Nigerians should be melted down, Gibbins said the scenario was impossible and therefore should not have been taken literally.
“It’s an unreal scenario; you cannot melt people down. Anyone who takes that literally… you cannot do that. I wouldn’t dream of joking about killing people,” he said.
Dowling, however, maintained that the post was grossly offensive and dehumanising, arguing that it was published “for no reason whatsoever other than to offend and humiliate people from Nigeria who live in Sunderland”.
Defence counsel Adam King described the post as an “unfunny” and “unpleasant joke/non-joke”.
He referred to jokes previously made by professional comedians Jo Brand and Jimmy Carr, arguing that offensive jokes had not always resulted in criminal prosecution.
The court, however, held that Gibbins’ comment crossed the threshold from merely offensive speech to being grossly offensive.
Judge Passfield said the case was not about Gibbins expressing a genuine political view on immigration but about his decision to reduce Nigerians to the status of material that could be used to fill potholes.
She also considered his right to freedom of expression but concluded that the post was not protected as a genuine expression of political opinion.
Christopher Atkinson of the Crown Prosecution Service North East said the case demonstrated the limits of free expression where racially charged comments become grossly offensive.
“Racially charged and grossly offensive comments like this cross the line between free speech and criminal behaviour. They can be particularly upsetting and dehumanising for those in affected communities,” he said.
“I would remind anyone using social media that grossly offensive commentary of the type used by Glenn Gibbins is a criminal offence, and those posting similar material could face prosecution as a result of their actions.”
Gibbins was consequently sentenced to a 12-month community order with 150 hours of unpaid work.
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