A wannabe Tory councillor has defended “offensive” social media comments where she called murdered Stephen Lawrence a violent drug dealer.

Anita Sillick, who is running to be councillor for Temple Hill in Dartford next year, said Stephen “used violence to get what he wanted” in leaked Facebook comments.

Stephen was stabbed to death in a racially motivated attack at a bus stop in Eltham in 1993 when he was 18-years-old.

“All this Stephen Lawrence stuff gets on my tits,” Ms Sillick wrote in the comments of a Facebook group thread.

She added: “He was a drug dealer who used violence to get what he wanted. My own father witnessed him going into a shop and demanding cigarettes he used a knife to threaten the member of staff behind the counter and ordered her to hand over hundred or pounds worth of cigarettes.”

The potential councillor claims Stephen also threatened a young girl with a knife at the shop where her dad worked.

She also wrote: “He was involved with a drug debt and that ended with a guy having his finger cut off for his sovereign ring to pay off said debt.

“He wasn’t a nice guy but I have never ever seen any of this being reported.”

Ms Sillick defended the comments when approached by News Shopper.

She said: “I stand by them. Not that anyone deserved to be killed. My dad was working at the Co-op in Eltham when this happened.”

Ms Sillick, who has previously been the victim of a homophobic attack, said she doesn’t care about politics and is only focused on community.

“We need to work together,” she said. “Red or blue it doesn’t matter. I want to make Temple Hill a better place.”

She pointed out that she was recently featured in the News Shopper for helping to clear litter, which she has been doing for around five years.

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Her ambition is to bring “Temple Hill back together” and insisted she recently helped a Greek neighbour who was ripped off by rogue traders.

Dartford Labour group slammed Ms Sillick for her “wrong” and “offensive” comments before urging her to apologise to the Lawrence family.

They wrote: “We condemn these comments from the prospective Conservative candidate in Temple Hill in the strongest possible terms. The assertions made are wrong, offensive and we can only imagine the distress these comments will cause to the family and friends of Stephen Lawrence.

“Representing your community as councillor is a privilege and one that comes with great responsibility. Ms Sillick has fallen well short in upholding these responsibilities.

“Dartford is a welcoming, diverse and tolerant community and we want it to stay that way. Sadly, we’ve seen recently that our politics is becoming more divisive and language such as this only acts to inflame that. It’s not welcome in Dartford.”

The Dartford Conservatives have been approached for comment.