(Pictures: Wiktor Szymanowicz)
A British black man and his family are living in fear of their lives after Tommy Robinson shared an X post of the mixed-heritage family playing at a playground.
A harmless day at the park saw Yorkshire musician Olajuwon Ayeni playing with his white granddaughters on a local roundabout.
His wife filmed the joyful encounter for her TikTok, captioning it: ‘Grandad duties with the twins’.
But the video was stolen and shared with the far-right activist’s 1.4million followers, under the caption ‘Wtf is even going on here? Where are the parents?!’
The family, from Redcar, were bombarded with death threats, trolls and people in the street falsely branded Mr Ayeni a paedophile and he was even dropped from his record management amid the fallout of the misleading post.
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‘I feel I have to sleep with one eye open,’ the grandfather told The Guardian.
‘I feel unsafe, scared and sad, as mine and my brother’s lives have been threatened. Someone said they will seek revenge and I’ll never walk again, all for just being in the park with the kids I love on a family day out.
‘It’s been twisted by haters and wicked people.’
His wife Natalie told the paper: ‘We haven’t gone outside at home, we just can’t.
‘Just after it started to go viral, someone in the local pub recognised Olajuwon immediately; we couldn’t believe how quick it had spread. We were walking home from shops just streets from our house, and two lads passed us, spun round and said ‘I hope you’re not them off that video or we’re coming back to slash you up’. It’s just horrendous.
‘Someone was shouting ‘paedophile’ outside the house the other night, so I rang the police again but they say there’s little they can do. It feels a matter of time before something bad happens. We tried to go out yesterday and had to come home.’
Grok, X’s AI platform, confirmed Tommy Robinson deleted the offending post.
It said: ‘Yes, based on multiple reports and searches, Tommy Robinson has deleted the tweet sharing the video of the grandfather with his granddaughters. The misrepresentation led to threats against the family, who are now in fear.’
Cleveland police said they were offering the family support after the threats.
The Redcar and Cleveland local policing superintendent, Emily Harrison, added: ‘Cleveland police would also urge social media users to refrain from further sharing either the video or any incorrect information about the people featured.’
Tommy Robinson has been contacted for comment.
