A CUMBRIAN anti-racism campaigner has described her relief at the conviction of an American police officer for the murder of George Floyd.

Former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin was found guilty on Tuesday of murdering Mr Floyd following a trial.

The murder sparked the Black Lives Matter movement across the globe, and numerous other anti-racism groups; including Anti Racist Cumbria.

Chairwoman and co-founder Janett Walker called it an “historic moment”.

She said: “We were created in response to what happened to George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.

“What happened to George is all about accountability, it’s upholding our law enforcers' accountability.

“Cumbria is the same — it needs to be held to account and it needs to work with organisations like ourselves to dismantle the systemic racism in our society. It’s there, 100 per cent.

“You never know what’s going to happen, we couldn’t know what the verdict would be. The relief was the very first emotion.

“It’s a step change to say we will now hold you accountable, not just in America — it’s been rippled throughout the world, and the UK needs to step up.”

A post shared by Anti Racist Cumbria about the verdict on Tuesday reached more than 6,000 people on social media, which Janett said showed the importance of the issue to people in the county.

Anti Racist Cumbria is now working with schools across the county and Cumbria Constabulary on a number of projects to try and tackle racism and make Cumbria an anti-racist county.

Janett continued: “What the movement has done people more active and look into themselves and the things they’re doing, or not doing.

“People are saying they want to be part of the change. It’s more than questioning the biases - we all have them.

"Nobody wants to feel they’re anything like those people who shot a man because he’s black, or kneel on their neck, but what we are is not actively anti-racist. We have 500 supporters growing all the time.

"Our aim is to become an actively anti-racist county.”