No evidence Southport riots were triggered by machete wielding man

Context

Riots have erupted across England following the fatal stabbings of three young girls in Southport on July 29, with social media users sharing misinformation as to the cause. One post alleges that the July 30 attack on a Southport mosque was triggered by a machete-wielding man who was arrested by police that day.

"This is what started the rioting tonight. Not one news outlet is reporting this," the Facebook post from July 30 begins. The post includes two screenshots. The first claims that after the vigil a man was arrested by police after he was found to have a machete in his possession. The second appears to be a screenshot taken from a news outlet reporting that a man was arrested following reports that he had a knife. 

The mosque attack followed viral false claims alleging that the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived illegally on a small boat the previous year. Local police quickly clarified that the attacker was born in Cardiff, and Logically Facts also debunked these claims. In a rare decision, the Liverpool Crown Court lifted restrictions on reporting the identity of a minor who has been detained, allowing the alleged attacker to be publicly named as 17-year-old Axel Muganwa Rudakubana. Rudakubana's parents had fled to the U.K as refugees from Rwanda and are Christian.

The disorder has since been blamed on supporters of the now-defunct far-right group the English Defense League (EDL). 

The mosque attack erupted following a peaceful vigil held for the victims. But a timeline of events indicates protests based on anti-Muslim tensions had been planned prior to the mosque attack.

What we found

On July 30, Merseyside police confirmed they had arrested a man, seizing a "flick knife" in the process at 6:55 p.m. on Eastbank Street, following a report of a knife-wielding man near the vigil. The man was later identified as 32-year-old Jordan Davies after claims circulated on social media alleging that he was a Muslim man of "Arab" appearance. 

The man was apprehended on a street within walking distance from the vigil, which was held on Saint Luke's Street, near the mosque. It is not clear whether he had any connection to the vigil. 

Maps showing the distance between Saint Luke's Street where the vigil was held and Southport mosque from the street where Davies was arrested (Source: Google Maps/Composite by Logically Facts)

Prior to the vigil, posts went viral on social media, calling on people to gather for a protest at 8 p.m. on St Luke's Street. Many of these posters expressed anti-immigrant sentiments and called for mass deportations, including one which stated, "Islam attacks again how many more times" and another stating, "diversity is a hate crime against white people". One of the posters explicitly called for protesters to cover their faces, stating, "no face, no case." 

Further, police had been alerted to possible tensions prior to the protest. An iNews journalist who had been using her X (formerly Twitter) account to report from Southport posted at 11 a.m. that police were monitoring a "possible far-right rally this evening." 

Tweet from iNews journalist Kitty Donaldson reporting on the police monitoring a "possible far-right rally" hours before the mosque attack. (Source: X/Screenshot)

Furthermore, alleged de facto leader of the EDL Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, posted footage from the riots on his X account showing local police protecting a mosque, and captioned it, "[the mosque] becomes a target for locals following the mass murder of children." The footage was posted at 9:19 p.m. Another post of his providing footage of the rioters destroying a police van links the attack on the mosque to the stabbings and makes no mention of the man arrested with a flick knife. 

Yaxley-Lennon has come under fire for sharing false claims on social media about the ongoing riots. This included sharing false claims that a Muslim man stabbed a 21-year-old woman in Stirling on Saturday, August 3. The police later confirmed that the suspect arrested in connection to that stabbing was a white man who was local to the area. 

On Tuesday, August 6, a 26-year-old man identified as Dylan Carey pled guilty in Liverpool Magistrates' Court to charges of violent disorder following his participation in the riots. He stated that he had accompanied his girlfriend to the vigil and participated in the riots because of his anger over the murdered victims. He did not name the arrest of a knife-wielding man as a motive. 

Logically Facts contacted Merseyside police for more information. The police responded, "We are unable to disclose any further information. Any further information will be released via our press office, or via our social media pages." 

The verdict 

Social media users claimed that the July 30 attack on a Southport mosque was triggered by a man who had been wielding a machete near the protest. Merseyside police confirmed that a 32-year-old man had been arrested after he was found with a flick knife close to the scene of the vigil. However, the man was arrested around two hours prior to the mosque attack and police had already been monitoring a planned far-right rally the morning of the attack. While it is possible the arrest may have further inflamed an already tense situation, there is no evidence the mosque attack was triggered by the arrest. We have therefore rated this claim misleading.