Claim seen by millions that woman was jailed for filming UK riots is false
The woman pleaded guilty to the charges of violent disorder and assault of an emergency worker
CLAIM
A post on X claims that a woman in the UK has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for filming the recent anti-immigration protests in the UK and shouting “we want our country back”.
BACKGROUND
A post on X by a user who goes by the name of Peter Sweden said: “BREAKING: A woman that filmed the anti-open border riots in Britain and shouted “we want our country back” has been sentenced to 20 months prison. What’s going on in Soviet Britain?”
The post, which was published on Saturday night, August 31, had already been viewed more than 42.7 million times by early Monday morning, September 2.
The original poster, @PeterSweden7, is a large account with close to 750,000 followers. But the post’s reach was helped in no small part by its reposting by the owner of X and one of the world’s richest people, Elon Musk, who has over 196 million followers. In his repost, he wrote: “Wow”
Elon Musk’s repost on September 1 was viewed over 40 million times.
Peter Sweden — real name Peter Imanuelsen — describes himself as a Swedish journalist and political commentator. His bio says he is a “supporter of freedom, kindness and liberty”.
A research piece published by the University of Oslo about how the Swedish far-right used Twitter/X to build global networks during the Swedish election in 2018 describes him as a well-known far-right voice in the country.
Despite not living in Britain, Elon Musk has been preoccupied with the recent eruption of anti-immigration rhetoric in the UK and the riots that were sparked by the killing of three children who were attending a dance party in Southport.
The unrest erupted after a wave of social media misinformation that the then-unnamed suspect in the case was a Muslim asylum seeker. He was later named as a UK-born 17-year-old.
Elon Musk posted dozens of times about the story and was accused of fanning the flames of anti-immigrant sentiment, even becoming embroiled in a “war of words” with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer when he suggested that “civil war is inevitable”.
METHOD
The original poster of the comment on X, Peter Sweden, expanded on the point in a thread beneath the first post. He said a ‘community note’ added to his post — which is no longer visible — was wrong in suggesting that Deana Evans admitted to violent disorder offences like launching missiles and trying to push through police lines, and said the note “needs to be removed.” It now appears that the note was removed.
Peter Sweden then shared an article from the Stoke Sentinel/Stoke-on-Trent Live, a local news outlet that covered the court case, which was headlined: “Couple chanting ‘we want our country back’ jailed after Hanley riots”.
He cited a line near the end of the article that says: “It was stressed that warehouse worker Evans did not throw any missiles or attack the police” at the riot on August 3.
But a complete read of the article reveals that the woman, Deana Evans, “pleaded guilty to violent disorder and assaulting an emergency worker”.
A BBC News article on the same case is clearer. It says: “The court heard Evans had elbowed an officer while she was being arrested at the couple’s home on 22 August.”
The court report from the BBC said that Evans and her partner were caught on CCTV being verbally abusive towards officers and stopping a police van trying to get through the crowds at the riot. There was no mention in the article of Evans throwing any projectiles at police; her partner, Ciaran Lockett was caught on camera throwing rocks and missiles towards a mosque.
From this analysis, we can conclude that the woman was arrested for violent disorder at the riot, and she was charged with assaulting a police officer during her arrest some weeks later. She further admitted to the charges.
Therefore, it is untrue to suggest the woman was imprisoned for filming and shouting at a protest, and the post was misleading on the true charges the woman faced.
RATING
The woman pleaded guilty to the charges of violent disorder and assault of an emergency worker, and was not jailed for filming the incident or shouting slogans during the riot.
SOURCES
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at: BREAKING: A woman that filmed the anti-open border riots in Britain and shouted… [Accessed 2 Sep. 2024].
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at: Elon Musk: Wow [Accessed 2 Sep. 2024].
Hf.uio.no. (2018). ‘Make Sweden Great Again’ – the far right found each other on Twitter during the Swedish election – Department of Media and Communication. [online] [Accessed 2 Sep. 2024].
BBC: Sandford, D., Sherlock, G., Mullen, T. (2024). Teen, 17, accused of Southport murders named. [online] [Accessed 2 Sep. 2024].
BBC: Gerken, T., Rhoden-Paul, A., Fraser, G. (2024). Musk targets PM again after criticism of UK ‘civil war’ post. [online] [Accessed 2 Sep. 2024].
Stoke-on-Trent Live (2024). Couple chanting ‘we want our country back’ jailed after Hanley riots. [online] [Accessed 2 Sep. 2024].
BBC: McIntyre, A., Wilson, P. (2024). Couple jailed over violent disorder in Stoke-on-Trent. [online] [Accessed 2 Sep. 2024].