A woman who organised the Black Lives Matter protest that toppled the statue of Edward Colston has been jailed after spending more than £30,000 donated to a youth charity on Ubers, an iPhone and computer, beauty products and takeaways.
Xahra Saleem, 23, a co-founder of the All Black Lives Bristol group, was named as one of the 30 most influential under-30s in Bristol by a now-defunct youth publication, Rife Magazine.
In the summer of 2020 Saleem, then known as Yvonne Maina, was one of five young people who organised a protest on June 7 in Bristol city centre in response to the murder of George Floyd by US police officers. The merchant and slave trader’s statue was pushed into the habour that afternoon.
In the days before the march, she started a GoFundMe online fundraiser in the group’s name, with the aim of raising a few hundred pounds to cover costs and pay for Covid PPE to be handed out to protesters.
Organisers said any money left over would go to a Bristol youth group, Changing Your Mindset, which planned to use it to fund a trip to Africa for young people in the deprived St Paul’s area.
Alistair Haggerty, for the prosecution, told Bristol crown court that £32,344 was raised by the GoFundMe page from 588 donations. He said the youth group was unable to open a business bank account during the pandemic, so a decision was made for the money to be held in Saleem’s personal account. “It was a sign of how much she was trusted,” Haggerty said.
Between July 2020 and June 2021 Saleem spent the money on a new iPhone and iMac computer, hair and beauty products, Amazon purchases, clothes, taxis, takeaways and general lifestyle expenses.
Saleem, who had no wage or regular income, also spent £5,800 on Uber taxi rides in the 11 months until June 2021.
In April 2021 the other directors of Changing Your Mindset asked Saleem to transfer the donated money into a new business account they had set up.
Saleem told them various lies about why she could not transfer the money, including that Black Lives Matter had advised her not to because “some of the people the charity had worked with had made homophobic comments”.
Rebecca Scott and Jade Royal, two of the other directors, told Saleem she had until June 7, 2021, to transfer the money and offered to help her come up with a repayment plan. But two weeks after the deadline had passed Saleem sent them an email which said “the money has gone” and claimed she suffered from psychosis and had been in hospital.
In the email she said: “I am so sorry, I am trying to understand my actions as well. I take full responsibility… as my actions have consequences I don’t want to pardon myself from them.” Saleem told the directors she would go to the police that day. She failed to do so and Avon and Somerset Police officers arrested her in July 2021.
In June 2021 she sent a WhatsApp message to a friend which said: “I have done something horrendous, you can’t tell anyone until I have sorted it out. I get really bad psychosis which I have mentioned to psychiatrists. This charity asked me to hold money for them, God knows why. Let’s just say my brain spent it. I can’t tell you what, where or why. I don’t know what I spent it on.”
Changing Your Mindset closed down after the directors became disillusioned and exhausted by what happened. In victim impact statements, Scott and Royal said they had been suspected of taking the donations and their integrity had been put into question.
Scott, who received an MBE in 2021 for her work in supporting disadvantaged communities in Bristol, said her “20 years of trust and devotion to the community was forgotten” in the face of the accusations and Saleem had “lied to and belittled us”.
Royal said that since the youth group had been shut down, a young person they had been supporting had died.
“I feel we could have been the people that saved that young person’s life,” Royal said. “I have lost trust in people and question myself all the time. The emotions have affected how I treat my family.”
Saleem, of Romford, Essex, was arrested and initially denied committing fraud.
A trial was listed for December but Saleem appeared at Bristol crown court on September 19 to change her plea to guilty.
Tom Edwards, in mitigation, said Saleem was diagnosed as suffering from depression “at a young age” and now works as a nanny and volunteers for the Islamic Aid charity.
Edwards said the young man who died following the youth group’s closure was Saleem’s own cousin who was the victim of stabbing. He added that Saleem’s offending could not be blamed for contributing to his death.
Saleem, who appeared in court wearing a hijab, was jailed for two and a half years and will face a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing in the future.
Speaking after the sentencing, Deniesha Royal, 22, a member of the youth group, said: “It doesn’t feel that justice has been fully served as we are unlikely to get back the money from her selfish actions.
“It feels like we are being punished. It saddens me that a member of our community could do this to us because they knew and understood the goal we set out to achieve in order to positively change our community.”
