Paris Brown
Kent PCC

A teenager chosen as Britain's first youth crime commissioner is facing calls to resign before she has even begun the role, after posting a series of violent, racist and homophobic messages on Twitter.

Paris Brown, 17, was chosen to work alongside Kent's police crime commissioner Anne Barnes to represent the views of the county's youth on policing and crime.

She is due to take up the salaried £15,000-a-year role later this year.

However the Mail on Sunday reported that Brown had posted a number of offensive tweets from her Twitter account @vilulabelle, describing her sex life, drug use and using a range of offensive terms to describe minority groups.

The newspaper quoted one tweet where she complains: "Worst part about being single is coming from a party/night out horny as f*** and having to sleep alone."

In another, posted before she was appointed, she says: "I really wanna make a batch of hash brownies."

Elsewhere she referred to immigrants as "illegals", gays as "fags" and travellers as "pikeys".

Nicholas Rogers, a Conservative councillor in Kent, tweeted in response: "Naive to throw a teen into robust political environment. Youth PCC nice bit of PR but ended in tears."

'I was showing off on twitter'

Brown responded: "I deeply apologise for any offence caused by my use of inappropriate language and for any inference of inappropriate views.

"I am not homophobic, racist or violent and am against the taking of drugs.

"If I'm guilty of anything it's showing off and wildly exaggerating on Twitter and I am very ashamed of myself, but I can't imagine that I'm the only teenager to have done this.

"I have a genuine interest in working with young people, as demonstrated by my current work as an apprentice for a local authority helping teenagers in a local community."

Barnes said: "'I absolutely do not condone the content and language of Paris' tweets.

"I am sure she will be ashamed of these comments but I would bet you that any parent who accessed a Twitter or Facebook account would be surprised and perhaps shocked at some of the stuff that's on it because that's what kids do."

She told Sky News that Brown went through a "proper recruitment process" and was vetted by the force.

"This is a very difficult time for her personally, but she will learn quickly from this and rapidly mature into the confident young person we are already seeing."

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