Man shared video falsely claiming man was stabbed

A man who was arrested for posting an offensive video on Facebook has been released without charge, North Yorkshire Police said.

Emergency services were called to New Queen Street in Scarborough on Wednesday after a 50-year-old man collapsed at about 23:45 BST.

He was pronounced dead at the scene and was temporarily covered by a blanket.

Just after midnight, a video of his body was posted on a local community Facebook page, wrongly suggesting the non-suspicious death was due to a stabbing.

The patient's family had not been informed of his death at the time the video was posted, according to the force.

Police traced the post back to a 60-year-old man, who lived in the area, and arrested him on suspicion of using an electronic communications network to send a grossly offensive message.

A spokesperson for the force said when questioned in custody, the man claimed he had not realised his post amounted to a criminal offence, which carried a maximum six months' imprisonment and an unlimited fine.

"He showed genuine remorse and passed on his apologies to the man's family," they added.

"He also agreed to delete the offensive post and video from the Facebook page, and the video from his phone entirely."

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