Popular Leicester pub 'The Globe' forced to close after false anti-military Facebook rumours

The owners of The Globe on Silver Street were forced to shut their doors on Saturday while security staff were brought in

Rob Williams
Sunday 18 August 2013 19:16 BST
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A popular pub in Leicester was forced to close amid fears of violent reprisals after its Facebook page was hacked and a message was posted claiming it had banned military personnel.

The false posting, which claimed the pub had enforced the new scheme for fear of upsetting ‘local non British citizens’, was picked up by a nationalist blog and led to the pub being inundated with a barrage of allegedly abusive phone calls from people who believed the claim.

The owners of The Globe on Silver Street were forced to shut their doors on Saturday while security staff were brought in.

Leicestershire Police are now investigating an offence of malicious communication.

Everards managing director, Stephen Gould, told the BBC: "We were placed in a position that throughout the day our staff had to respond to very aggressive people obviously believing that the policy was true.

"Ourselves and the manager will have to monitor that very, very carefully over the coming days."

He added: "We have no idea why The Globe was targeted but we will be working with police to find out why this happened."

The pub stated on its Twitter feed: "The globe has been the victim of a malicious and false news story which states we are no longer serving military personnel. This is false.

"This pub never has and never will adopt a policy towards the service of either current or ex-military personnel.

"We understand the delicate nature of this situation & we would sincerely ask for people to stop making threats towards the pub or its staff."

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