A man has been arrested by police investigating online threats against an SDLP councillor who is set to become Northern Ireland’s first black mayor.
Lilian Seenoi-Barr, who is originally from Kenya, is due to take up the role of mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council next month.
Ms Seenoi-Barr has received racist abuse and death threats since her appointment was announced last week.
The SDLP leader, Colum Eastwood, has condemned the abuse and what he described as “very serious death threats.”
Joy is a word Conor McGregor returns to again and again. Nikita Hand paints a much darker picture
Blindboy: ‘I left my first day of school feeling great shame. The pain of that still rises up in me’
Liverpool must think Mamardashvili is something very special if they believe he’s better than Kelleher
Election 2024 poll: Support for Independents jumps but Fine Gael remains most popular party
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said a 30-year-old man attended Strand Road police station in Derry on Sunday and was arrested on suspicion of harassment, threats to kill and improper use of a public electronic communications network.
He was held in custody overnight and was released on bail on Monday morning pending further enquiries.
The PSNI said it was treating the alleged offences as a racially-motivated hate crime.
A local policing inspector said the PSNI wanted to “assure the public that we take reports of online threats and harassment seriously.
“I would encourage anyone who has been the victim of such behaviour to contact police on 101, or on 999 in an emergency,” he said.
Speaking on Sunday, Ms Seenoi-Barr said she had received racist abuse since coming to Northern Ireland as a refugee in 2010 and becoming a councillor, but the recent online abuse was “beyond” anything she had previously experienced.
The American far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones – who claimed the Sandy Hook shootings were a hoax – is among those who have targeted her with abusive postings on social media.
“My family is the one that is feeling it more than myself, I’m used to it,” Ms Seenoi-Barr told the BBC’s Sunday Politics programme.
“The death threats have been extremely hurtful to my family and to myself too, but I’m more focused on the positives.
“I have had enormous support across the island – community organisations, politicians who have reached out and stood in solidarity.
“That is the Derry I know, the Ireland I know, and that’s what I want to focus on,” she said.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Find The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
