UK Reform councillor convicted after calling for Nigerians to be melted

A suspended Reform UK councillor has been convicted after posting on social media that Nigerians should be melted down and used to fill potholes.

Glenn Gibbins, 66, was found guilty at South Tyneside magistrates’ court of a malicious communication after making the post on Facebook.

He told the court on Monday, November 9, 2026 that it was “naughty”, but he did not mean it literally.

The post came to light when the group Hope Not Hate went through his social media posts when Gibbins was announced as a Reform UK candidate for Sunderland city council. 

Police were informed after he was successfully voted in.

He posted: “Can't believe the amount of Nigerians in town… should melt them all down and fill in the potholes."

Emma Dowling, prosecuting, said: “The comment about melting them down conjures up despicable images.”

She said it implied that Nigerians were “somewhat less than human, stripping people in that group of humanity”.

Gibbins, a divorced former salesman who runs a stall in Sunderland city centre printing novelty gifts, told the court: “I thought it was a tongue-in-cheek joke.

“It was an unreal scenario. No one took it literally.”

He explained how he had set up his business in the Bridges shopping centre and recalled on the day he made the post that some Nigerians had approached him about buying some of his printing equipment.

Gibbins recalled he had “banter” with the Nigerians at his stall and that the conversation was good fun.

That night, after “a couple of cans of beer”, he said he saw a post on Facebook about Nigerians which he tried to share without success, so he typed it out himself and posted it to his public Facebook profile.

When Ms Dowling asked him what reaction he intended to cause, he said: “It was tongue-in-cheek, a bit naughty, but I thought it was fun."

Speaking of the earlier interaction with the Nigerians at his stall, he said: “They had done my head in, in a funny way, not a bad way.”

When she asked what was funny about the post, Gibbins replied: “It’s an unreal scenario: you cannot melt people down. Anyone that takes that literally… you cannot do that."

He added: “I wouldn’t dream of joking about killing people.”

He explained he was not particularly political and when he was approached by Reform UK about becoming a councillor in March this year, he considered it would be a source of income “to tide me over” when business was quieter in the summer.

He also said he enjoyed helping residents in the brief period when he was not suspended.

Ms Dowling, summarising the prosecution case, said the post was grossly offensive and was shared “for no reason whatsoever other than to offend and humiliate people from Nigeria who live in Sunderland”.

Adam King, defending, said the post was “unfunny” and “an unpleasant joke/non-joke”.

He said that even if the judge considered the post grossly offensive, she had to be sure Gibbins intended it to be and could be taken as such.

Giving her guilty verdict, Judge Zoe Passfield said she had considered Gibbins’ right to free expression under the European Convention on Human Rights, but decided the post was not a genuine expression of political views.

She sentenced him to a 12-month community order with 150 hours of unpaid work.

Gibbins’ legal team said Gibbins intended to appeal to the Crown Court later.