I had no idea this had been reported to the Ombudsman, however well done to the lady for doing this. The Omudsman's outcome is poor and lots of the victim's family members were deeply distressed by this advert that hit all of the national papers.
Tom is a very clever and on-the-ball political man, it is odd that he claims he had no idea who the man in the picture was, still clearly by the Ombudsmans response it does not really matter anyway.
The sooner the out-of-touch Ombudsman is replaced by a governing body for Councillors the better, even non-elected but co-opted ones like Maclean.
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A COLWYN Bay councillor who shared a fake social media post featuring a far-right mass murderer holding up a meal deal poster has been cautioned.
Tom Maclean, who represents the Glyn ward, posted an edited image of Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik holding an advert for a £1 Asda meal deal in November 2022.
The photo of Breivik was from his trial for two domestic terror attacks in Norway in 2011, which claimed the lives of 77 people, including members on a Workers' Youth League (AUF) summer camp getaway.
He was found guilty of mass murder, causing a fatal explosion, and terrorism and given a 21-year prison sentence.
Mr Maclean deleted the post soon after amid public backlash, and in a now-deleted apology, said at the time that the post “featured a person I have since been told is a pretty ghastly figure.”
A complaint was made about Mr Maclean to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, Michelle Morris, who concluded his actions were "wholly inappropriate" but were unintentional.
In a summary of her investigation, Ms Morris said a potential breach of the code of conduct had been considered.
Ms Morris added: “The Member [Maclean] had apologised for any offence caused and removed the post immediately claiming that he did not know who the person was in the picture and it had been an erroneous use of clipart and a genuine mistake. The complainant provided no further information.
“The Ombudsman considered that suggesting a link between the mass murderer and the meal deal would be an egregious parallel to have been made.
“However, the Member claimed that the link was unintentional and although the Ombudsman considered the Member’s explanation for how the post was made lacked credibility, no evidence was provided to the contrary.
“The post was wholly inappropriate.
“However, given the lack of engagement from the complainant, the remorse expressed by the Member, the challenge of disproving his explanation, his co-operation with the investigation, and the immediate removal of the post, it was decided that further investigation would not be in the public interest.
“The Member was warned to take care when making public posts in future and the investigation was discontinued.”
This man should have been sacked, Knowing him and he is very political and opinionated, I bet he did it for a laugh.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how true this is but apparently his partner was underage when he met her, and he was in his 40s!
ReplyDeleteHorrid little man
ReplyDeleteCreepy Tom
ReplyDelete