A university said it is investigating anti-Muslim comments made on an employee's social media account.
Edge Hill University, based in Ormskirk, said it was aware of comments posted by a current employee's X account (formerly Twitter) and said it was "taking this situation very seriously and investigations are ongoing". The account carries the name of Anthony Rishton, who is currently a business development coordinator at the university.
Screenshots of the racist comments were shared on X from when a personal account named @AnthonyRishton had public privacy settings. The account has since been deactivated.
A LinkedIn account which also carried the name Anthony Rishton also appears to have since been deactivated, however a previous post on the page was shared on X which said "my personal Twitter account has been hacked". The full post read: "Good morning. I awake to find myself firefighting this morning as my personal Twitter account has been hacked and seems to have spilled over into my professional life. I will be off-line until I can sort. Thank you."
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Anti-Muslim comments, which the ECHO has chosen not to republish, were made on an account named @AnthonyRishton on Monday, November 4.
Another Anti-Muslim comment was also posted on Friday, November 17, from the same @AnthonyRishton account.
In a thread, posted on X, after a user shared screenshots of the comments made by the @AnthonyRishton account, on November 4, Edge Hill University responded. A spokesperson for the university posted: "The views shared in these posts in no way reflect those of the University" and it was "taking allegations seriously".
In a statement to the ECHO, an Edge Hill spokesperson said: “We are aware of comments posted on a current employee’s social media account. The views expressed do not reflect those of the University. We are taking this situation very seriously and investigations are ongoing. We are unable to comment on the progress of these interventions at this time.
“The wellbeing of our students and staff is our utmost priority and we have offered support to any who may have been affected by the comments.”
The ECHO attempted to contact the account of @AnthonyRishton for a response.