A councillor bullied the former partner of a Liverpool Council cabinet member when he described her as a “bird” on social media last year, an investigation has found.
In a post online in November last year, independent Cllr Sam Gorst was found to have broken the city council’s code of conduct when he asked Cllr Nick Small “how’s your bird these days?"
After a complaint was raised by Cllr Small’s former partner Michelle Langan, a Liverpool Council standards and ethics committee investigated whether Cllr Gorst had breached authority rules around bullying and harassment.
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Following an external report and committee hearing held last month, the independent Garston councillor was found to have breached the code of conduct in his post towards Ms Langan and ordered to apologise.
An investigator’s report, seen by the ECHO, said Cllr Gorst posted online on November 30, 2022 using the handle @CllrSamGorst. The post to Cllr Small singled out his then-partner Ms Langan when he asked “How’s your bird these days?” and accused her of “tormenting people with mental illness.”
The report, drafted by barrister Timothy Leader, said “I accept that many people who read the tweet would readily identify her as the subject of the tweet.” Mr Leader said it could be inferred that Cllr Gorst’s post “was intended to and did make insinuations about her character and conduct. That comment was undoubtedly abusive and pejorative.
“It might well damage Ms Langan’s reputation and impact on her charity work. It certainly had the potential to offend and upset her, and I judge it was intended to do so.”
The barrister said he felt Cllr Gorst’s post had “nothing to do with politics or political expression” and was “merely gratuitous abuse.” As a result, Mr Leader said: “I consider the tweet breached the code in that it shows a lack of respect for Ms Langan and amounted to bullying.”
The report by Mr Leader said as Cllr Gorst’s posts made reference to him being an independent city councillor, it gave the “distinct impression” he was acting in his role as an elected member online.
An assessment of Ms Langan’s complaint was taken out by then deputy monitoring officer Mike Jones in December last year. According to the report, Mr Jones concluded the contents of the post implied misconduct on the part of Ms Langan “without any form of substantiation such as to potentially amount to defamation.”
It was recommended Cllr Gorst write to Ms Langan and Cllr Small to apologise and delete the post. The former Labour councillor has confirmed to the investigation and the ECHO he does not intend to apologise.
In an email dated January 31 this year to Mr Jones, Cllr Gorst said: “I hope you understand my points. I will not be apologising. I deleted the post a long time ago. I am ready to accept further sanctions.”
During the investigation, Ms Langan said she felt Cllr Gorst’s post was “provocative, infuriating and upsetting.” Mr Leader’s report said she did not like being referred to in such a way during her relationship with Cllr Small, finding the language sexist and demeaning.
It added: “She emphasised that although she is a resilient person this tweet hurt her, especially as she is not a politician or a political person. She also told me her parents read the tweet and her mother cried because she saw her daughter was being attacked.”
Further complaints made by former Mayor Joanne Anderson and a third individual were assessed by Mr Leader but dismissed.
The barrister’s findings said Cllr Gorst had declined to take part in the investigation until after May’s all-out city council elections. This was met with disdain by Mr Leader.
He said: “In my opinion, it ought to have been possible for Councillor Gorst to have found the time to take part in my investigation; notwithstanding he was busy electioneering, matters could easily have been disposed of by Teams or face-to-face in an hour or less.
“He simply could not be bothered to take part.”
In response to the sanction, Cllr Alan Gibbons, leader of the Liverpool Community Independents group who represented Cllr Gorst at the panel meeting, said: “We reject the panel’s finding that Cllr Gorst’s reaction constitutes bullying. It was an intemperate response in a Twitter argument.
“To understand Cllr Gorst’s reaction you have to understand the context. He had been harassed and insulted for months by malevolent spoof social media accounts employing crude sexist and Islamophobic material prior to this argument.”
Cllr Gibbons said his group believe members of the Labour Party are behind spoof accounts and also cited a fake community newspaper produced by the party during May’s election which targeted Cllr Gorst. The Orrell Park member questioned the treatment of his colleague compared to current and former Labour councillors involved in the parking ticket scandal, first exposed by the Liverpool Echo in February of last year.
He said: “There appears to be one law for Labour councillors and a different one for the opposition. Finally, Cllr Gorst has a diagnosed medical health condition, a symptom of which can be at times fractious behaviour.
“He has received little support while he has been a councillor and we believe this verdict again disregards the impact of mental health on people’s lives.
“Sam’s recognition of the inappropriateness of his comment should be enough, given the stress he has been subjected to by constant online attacks, attacks which do constitute bullying and have not been addressed by this council. If Liverpool City Council is to put its past problems behind it, it needs to be more consistent, transparent and fair than this judgement.”
Cllr Gorst’s Garston colleague, Cllr Lucy Williams said: “Sam has been a target of online bullying for several years. I and many Garston residents have supported him through this, and will continue to do so, as it has taken a toll on his mental health. If Liverpool City Council take claims of bullying seriously I urge them to investigate the cowards behind the online account that have targeted Sam for many years.”
In a statement, Ms Langan said: “Cllr Gorst was found guilty of breaking the code of conduct for his untrue and defamatory post about me, yet for 12 months he has refused to engage in the council’s own investigation into his behaviour. After a year-long process, which has incurred substantial costs to the public purse, and an independent legal report which stated he had ‘a surprising contempt for the councillors code of conduct’ his sanction is the first sanction he refused a year ago – a private apology. Which I am still waiting on.”
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