Councillor sent topless picture to mothers

A SHEFFIELD councillor who sent a photo of a topless woman to a group of mothers during a council meeting has been suspended by Labour.

Coun Mohammad Maroof, who represents Nether Edge and Sharrow, has sincerely apologised for the “honest mistake”.

He says he was sent the unsolicited image and is “very embarrassed” that he accidentally forwarded it on to a group of mums and fellow councillors.

The photo was distributed to a Mums United WhatsApp group – as its founder Sahira Irshad was presenting a petition to full council on knife crime.

Instead of attaching a video of Ms Irshad speaking, Coun Maroof says he accidentally attached the image and within seconds, asked for it to be deleted.

Coun Maroof says the image was set to him earlier in the day on a different Whatsapp message and was automatically downloaded into his phone’s photo file.

He said: “This is my private phone and I receive so many things that my Whatsapp has been set up to automatically save everything in my phone’s photo file.

“Somebody sent me this photo, it may have come in the morning, and it went into my phone’s file.

“I tried to send the group a video and by mistake I pressed the wrong photo. As soon as I realised, I asked for it to be deleted as I couldn’t delete it myself.”

Labour Leader Julie Dore has suspended Coun Maroof pending an investigation.