Coun Ted Parton found innocent and is reinstated by Conservative Party
LOUGHBOROUGH Conservative councillor, Coun Ted Parton, who was suspended from the party late last year following a complaint against him, has been cleared of any wrong-doing and reinstated.
The complaint made involved alleged social media posts containing racial material.
Coun Parton refuted the claim saying that he had no connection to the social media account and he was not the author of the material.
Now he has received a letter from the Conservative disciplinary committee, which includes the findings of Reuben Solomon, digital infrastructure manager at Conservative Party headquarters.
Mr Solomon wrote to the investigators saying: “My findings are as follows:
“There is no indication publicly, that Councillor Ted Parton and the Twitter account are linked.
“The account has been linked to and used for the automatic sharing and resharing content, typical of a bot-style Twitter account.
“The account in question may have been created to discredit Councillor Ted Parton.
“Therefore, I believe that there is no credible evidence to refute Councillor Ted Parton’s assertion that the account was not his.
“It follows that there is sufficient doubt as to whether Councillor Ted Parton is responsible for the content in question.
“His defence is valid. It would not be possible for the Party to prove on the balance of probabilities that Councillor Ted Parton was responsible for the content of the posts in question.
“It is my view that the account in question did not belong to Councillor Ted Parton.”
Mr Solomon’s findings also included research sent to the investigative committee by Loughborough IT company Storm components, which concluded that the offending social media account appeared to be an automated “bot” account.
Mr Solomon added: “The additional information provided by IT company Storm Components is valid.”
The committee’s letter to Coun Parton, informing him of the result of the investigation states: “Having considered the email from Mr Allen alongside the email from Mr Solomon, the committee concluded that there is convincing evidence to support the respondent’s position.
“For that reason, the committee concluded that the complaint against the respondent must be dismissed.
“Consequently, his membership of the Party must be reinstated with immediate effect.”
This week Coun Parton told the Echo: “Last October, an allegation was made against me relating to social media posts, the contents of which were utterly abhorrent.
“I immediately knew that these were digitally mocked-up false posts and appointed independent IT investigators.
“It is entirely appropriate that the Conservative Party takes seriously any allegations of wrongdoing amongst its elected councillors and as such I was suspended, pending a rigorous internal investigation.
“I strongly welcomed this, as I was certain of my innocence and determined to prove beyond any doubt that I had been the victim of a malicious digital attack.
“The past five months have been deeply upsetting and personally and professionally damaging. The Loughborough South Division, comprising Southfields and Shelthorpe wards, is my home and my place of work and my ultimate loyalty is to the people I represent, who live and work alongside me.
“I have continued to serve the division throughout this ordeal and am delighted that I can now further improve my efforts and effectiveness, free from the shadow of what was a disgusting, malicious and entirely false attack.
“I thank the Conservative Party for the thoroughness of their investigation and also Leicestershire Police, my fantastic colleagues at Charnwood Borough and Leicestershire County Councils, and the countless residents of Loughborough South Division, all of whom have shown very welcome and unwavering belief and support throughout what has been a truly horrendous period.
“Finally, anyone who knows me would confirm that I utterly condemn in the strongest terms possible the spreading of material through any medium that is offensive or degrading in any way on grounds of race, ethnicity, gender, physical or mental capacity or sexuality.
“Unfortunately, many of the individuals and groups that engage in such despicable activity currently do so with impunity, and it is clear that changes need to be made to the legislative controls that are supposed to govern both the users of social media and the owners and operators of the platforms that enable this vile behaviour.”
Loughborough Constituency Conservative Association chairman, Trevor Ranson told the Echo: “We are very pleased the matter has been resolved and to have Ted back.”