SOLICITOR AND WANNABE MP AGREED TO PAY DAMAGES AFTER SPREADING INACCURATE CLAIMS ABOUT YOUNG TEACHER WHO WAS 'PUT IN DANGER' 13:27, 19 Jan 2025 Former Birmingham election candidate

MP and solicitor Akhmed Yakoob has paid damages understood to run to 'thousands of pounds' to a young teacher he 'put in danger' after spreading a 'fake news'

video to his followers. Cheryl Bennett faced hate mail, abuse and threats, feared for her job and future, and had people trying to 'hunt her down' when she was wrongly accused of

being a racist, she has told BirminghamLive. She was 'extremely distressed' and feared her 'life was over' as a result of the case. Yakoob, who runs Maurice Andrews law

he named her during his viral onslaught against her but he said the incident, while 'a mistake', would not deter him from standing for public office in future. "I fully intend

to stand again and am in discussions about a new political movement in the West Midlands," he said. "I have apologised and she has accepted my apology and the settlement."

Asked to confirm the sum involved, he said he was barred from doing so by a non-disclosure agreement but did not dispute it ran to 'thousands'. Cheryl, head of Year 11 at Stuart

Bathurst College in Wednesbury, first spoke to Birmingham Live last May on condition of anonymity in the immediate aftermath of the video going viral. Shaking in distress, she told us she

had been left facing a torrent of abuse and hate mail after Yakoob - at the time a candidate in the West Midlands mayoral election - gave validity to the incorrect claim that she had made

racist slurs against a resident while canvassing for a Labour party local election candidate. She had been out supporting her teaching colleague, the school's then-head of maths Qasim

Mughal, who was standing for Dudley Council, as a favour despite having no political affiliations of her own. What happened next was a nightmare, she said. She had 'no inkling'

trouble was afoot until her phone notifications began buzzing shortly after her day of canvassing alongside Mr Mughal, who is now a councillor. She quickly traced the source - a TikTok video

posted by Yakoob. In the video she was seen walking away from a house during the canvassing visits and making comments to someone out of shot - with captions overlaying the footage claiming

what she uttered were two distinct racial slurs against Pakistanis. The householder who owns the original footage claimed to Birmingham Live at the time that they had innocently posted it

on a local WhatsApp channel asking if people could make out what the canvasser was saying but had no further part in what transpired. The falsely-captioned video ended up being shared by

Yakoob, at the time an independent pro-Gaza candidate for mayor of the West Midlands. He posted the footage to his 200,000 TikTok followers, and on Facebook and on Twitter, with an

introduction and commentary by him. In his trademark sunglasses, arms folded, he stated: "I have no words for this, you can just make your own judgement … Those who are still in the

Labour Party, now is your time to leave.” His intention was to demonstrate the Labour Party was racist and urge members to quit the party. He later posted Cheryl's name and place of

work. It 'blew my life apart', she said at the time. The video ended up having more than two million views across social media. Among those who commented were parents and pupils at

the school. Richard May, executive principal at Stuart Bathurst Catholic High School, told BirminghamLive it was "the worst experience of my 24-year career" but said it was

nothing compared to the impact on the young teacher. "I was urged to sack her immediately," he said as the false allegations swirled. He had to ensure the school was secure and the

police were involved, he added. Police also turned up at Cheryl's house - a visit they later described as a welfare check, though at the time Cheryl feared she faced arrest. Among the

messages she received were from pupils, one saying to her: "I didn't expect a teacher of your standard to be discriminative of races." She told her friend Mr Mughal: "My

life is over" and “my entire reputation has been destroyed”. She was 'in tears and extremely distressed,' he recalled. READ MORE: TEACHER'S 'LIFE BLOWN APART'

IN ONSLAUGHT OF HATE AS FALSE RACISM CLAIM GOES VIRAL Cheryl said at the time: "It has been heartbreaking for me to go through this. I am still numb, it has been a nightmare. I have

been unable to stop shaking, constantly on edge, it's brought my whole world crashing down. "It is not only detrimental to my career as a teacher but also to my identity. All my

life I have been known as a polite, well-mannered, helpful good person and always had a very good reputation and that was blown up by one false allegation." She received death threats

and warned to 'watch what happens' among thousands of messages. She said: "I have had family and friends supporting me thankfully, and parents of pupils and my colleagues who

know this is not something I would ever do have been amazing. THE INSIDE BIRMINGHAM WITH JANE HAYNES NEWSLETTER COVERED THE STORY IN DETAIL LAST MAY. YOU CAN READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

BIRMINGHAMLIVE'S EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE OF THE STORY AT THE TIME - AND THE AFTERMATH TEACHER'S 'LIFE BLOWN APART' IN ONSLAUGHT OF HATE AS FALSE RACISM CLAIM GOES VIRAL POLICE

CONFIRM 'NO RACIST SLURS OR LANGUAGE' IN VIRAL VIDEO THAT 'MADE TEACHER'S LIFE HELL' HEAD TEACHER'S 'HORROR' AS SCHOOL 'BOMBARDED WITH

ABUSE' OVER FAKE RACISM VIDEO 'MY HEART IS FULL' SAYS TEACHER AT CENTRE OF VIRAL RACISM VIDEO STORM AFTER MASSIVE SUPPORT "I have a close relationship with them so it has

been a relief seeing them make contact and sending me messages. I cannot thank the school enough for their support. I hope the people who posted this and pushed this false allegation never

experience this for their own children and families. I hope they realise their words and actions can impact someone's life forever." THE INSIDE BIRMINGHAM WITH JANE HAYNES

NEWSLETTER COVERED THE STORY IN DETAIL LAST MAY. YOU CAN READ THE FULL STORY HERE. Article continues below Yakoob, 37, later received close to 70,000 votes in the mayoral election, behind

Labour's Richard Parker who overcame Conservative Andy Street by a narrow margin. He later stood in the Birmingham Ladywood constituency in the General Election, losing narrowly to

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood. Nick McAleenan, a partner at Brabners, the law firm that represented Cheryl in the settlement case, said deepfakes did not just risk harming innocent

people, but also “interfering with the democratic process and unfairly swaying voters”. He added: “In this case, the offending TikTok portrayed Cheryl Bennett in a completely false light and

caused her serious reputational harm. She was collateral damage.”