Worker in charge of Milton Keynes homeless support service denies leaving inappropriate comment and breaching data protection about rough sleepers on social media

The insensitive quip was posted on Facebook under the name and profile of Louise Ritchie, who is local manger of SMART CJS, the service commissioned by MK Council to help homeless people and rough sleepers throughout the borough.

It was in response to a post on Thames Valley Police MK page, naming a man who had been arrested and charged with harassment.

The comment under Mrs Ritchie's name read "One less off my RS (rough sleeper) street list" and was followed by an emoji showing tears of laughter.

This prompted complaints from the public and, in response, MK Council asked SMART to investigate.

"Not only is this a massive data protection breach, but to post this kind of thing on a social media group and laugh about it is totally abhorrent and unprofessional," said one protester.

Today SMART chief executive officer Anita McCallum said the investigation was complete and Mrs Ritchie was innocent. She said she suspected a "service user" - a homeless person - was responsbile.

She said: "I can confirm that the likeliest explanation for this is someone using Mrs Ritchie’s mobile phone to review the TVP MK page and make mischief by placing a comment (purporting to be from her) using her Facebook login when the phone was left unattended.

"From the incident log, it will have happened on the July 29th as this was an incredibly busy day at the hotel in MK with a threatened overdose and an arrest, and so the Service Manager had to respond to these emergencies and left her phone unattended for some of the time.

"We suspect a Service User at the hotel posted the comment without her permission or knowledge."

Ms McCullum added: "She (Mrs Ritchie) has deleted the comment and changed her password and now will be very mindful of not leaving her mobile unattended at any time.

"Ms Ritchie is a valued employee and would never make any inappropriate or insensitive remarks about the homeless or rough sleeping community on any social media platform. We take this incident very seriously and will be looking through CCTV to piece together the events on that day in July."

SMART works with people who have multiple and complex needs such as homelessness, domestic abuse, addiction and mental health issues