A Liverpool woman has admitted that she may have over-reacted, after reporting Lord Sugar for posting a tweet that she claimed was “racist”.
Nichola Szeto filed a complaint on the social media site, after the Apprentice star posted a picture of an upset Chinese child on September 30, joking: “The kid in the middle is upset because he was told off for leaving the production line of the iPhone 5.” – a reference to the location where the phones are made.
The report led to the incident being investigated by Merseyside Police, who have concluded that no criminal offences have taken place.
A police spokesman said: “Merseyside Police can confirm that officers received a complaint in relation to the tweet sent on the evening of Sunday September 30. The communication has been examined by the force’s specialist hate crime investigation team and at this time it has been recorded as a hate incident and no criminal offences have taken place.
“Officers from the specialist team will be contacting the person who made the initial complaint to discuss this.”
Ms Szeto, whose husband and family are Chinese, admitted that she may have over-reacted to the tweet, but maintained that she was offended by the post.
She said in an open letter to Lord Sugar: “I am of mixed English/Chinese heritage and my partner and children are Chinese. What you wrote did offend me. I am not sorry for voicing my opinion because you would have done exactly the same if you were me.”
She added that she had no idea that the complaint would be taken so seriously.
Lord Sugar, who has over 3.2 million followers on the micro blogging website, has yet to respond to the claims on Twitter.