A Conservative councillor who called for a newspaper columnist to be stoned to death was arrested over a message on his private Twitter account, police said today.
Gareth Compton conservative councillor for Erdington, Birmingham, was questioned and released on bail following his arrest.
A West Midlands Police spokesperson said: “We can confirm a 38-year-old man from Harborne has been arrested for an offence under section 127 (1a) of the Communications Act of 2003 on suspicion of sending an offensive or indecent message. He has been bailed pending further inquiries.”
The post on Mr Compton’s twitter profile, which has since been removed, reportedly read: “Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan’t tell Amnesty if you don’t. It would be a blessing, really.”
In a message posted on the site this afternoon he apologised: “I did not ‘call’ for the stoning of anybody. I made an ill-conceived attempt at humour in response to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown saying on Radio 5 Live … that no politician had the right to comment on human rights abuses, even the stoning of women in Iran. I apologise for any offence caused. It was wholly unintentional.”
The Conservative Party said Mr Compton had been suspended indefinitely over the alleged tweet.
A Conservative spokesman said: “Language of this sort is not acceptable and as a result Gareth Compton’s membership of the Conservative Party has been indefinitely suspended pending further investigation.”
“As a matter of course Cllr Compton has been suspended from the Conservative group.”