- Suspended Reform UK councillor Glenn Gibbins has been found guilty of sending a grossly offensive message on Facebook.
- The 66-year-old Sunderland City councillor posted that Nigerians living in the city should be melted down and used to fill in potholes.
- District Judge Zoe Passfield rejected his defence that the post was a tongue-in-cheek joke, ruling that it was dehumanising and targeted a specific ethnic minority.
- Gibbins will be sentenced at South Tyneside Magistrates' Court later on Monday and has been informed he will not face a prison sentence.
- His legal team has confirmed that they plan to appeal against the verdict at the Crown Court.
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