Slavery Facebook meme: Darlington councillor cleared of misconduct

Darlington opposition councillors made a complaint about Pauline Culley's Facebook post

A councillor has been cleared of misconduct over a social media post about the slave trade.

Darlington Borough Council's standards panel found the meme posted by Pauline Culley was "ill-judged and offensive" but did not breach the code of conduct.

Opposition councillors complained about the meme which said slavery was "not specially" for black people.

Mrs Culley, who is chairman of the Conservative Party Association, said the inquiry had been a "waste of time".

The standards committee heard Mrs Culley posted the meme on her councillor Facebook page during last September's Black Lives Matter movement featuring a picture of a white women being held by men in Arabian dress with the words: "White slaves were sold for centuries. You're not special. Black people owned and sold slaves."

'Freedom of expression'

A Tees Valley resident, whose name was withheld, told the committee there were about 15 million victims of the North Atlantic slave trade and to suggest it was not a big deal and unique in terms of scale was not a matter for debate.

The panel's chairman, councillor Kevin Nicholson, said the post had been "ill-judged and offensive in its nature", the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

But he, added: "The panel does not consider it so offensive that [Mrs] Culley lost her rights under the freedom of expression rule."

Mrs Culley, who has represented Mowden on the council since 2014, said: "I am of course pleased with the decision of the panel, but disappointed that council officers had to waste so much time and money because of a political attack."