Essex Police find no crime after Tory quits over tweets

Marco Lorenzini, centre, had won the Bush Fair seat in Harlow, Essex, by four votes on 5 May

No criminal offences were committed by a Conservative councillor accused of sharing "racist" comments on social media, police said.

Marco Lorenzini was elected for the Bush Fair seat for Harlow Council in Essex last month.

He was said to have retweeted posts described as racist and was dropped by his local party, and then stepped down from the authority.

Essex Police concluded the tweets did not amount to a hate crime.

Mr Lorenzini won his seat by four votes, ahead of the Labour candidate Kay Morrison, as the Tories kept control of the district council.

But it later came to light that a social media account linked to him retweeted what have been described as racist comments.

Essex Police said it assessed whether any criminal offences had taken place and followed the College of Policing guidance.

Officers concluded the tweets were considered unsavoury and very unpleasant, but did not amount to a criminal offence.

In a statement, the force said: "We work shoulder-to-shoulder with our Essex partners to take a tough stance against hatred, and we work closely with the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] to make sure that where we identify hate crime offenders, they are brought to justice."

Mr Lorenzini has declined to comment.

Harlow Council said a by-election would take place on Thursday, 23 June.