A SENIOR Labour councillor has escaped with a slap on the wrist after being found to have used grossly offensive language to a resident on Facebook.

Councillor Seve Gomez-Aspron, 29, ended a conversation with a woman on the social networking site by writing ‘“See you next Tuesday”’, St Helens Council’s Standards Committee was told.

But the expression was abbreviated into text speak, using single capital letters for the first two words and a capital ‘n’ for ‘next’. A report to the committee presented was told said the expression is widely known to be a euphemism for a derogatory four-letter word.

A screenshot of the conversation was circulated to the Standards Committee, which met on Monday to consider whether the councillor had breached the code of conduct.

The online conversation, which took place in September 2014, started when the 19-year-old woman approached the councillor via Facebook for details of a dog-chipping event, which he had earlier signposted on the Newton Network page.

The complainant, who has asked not to be identified, alleges that the conversation, which also involved relatives of the councillor, became “inappropriate and nasty”.

Cllr Gomez-Aspron, who is the cabinet member for environment and neighbourhoods, signs off from the conversation by suggesting she come to his next councillor’s surgery, which are held on the second Tuesday of each month, and then uses the controversial phrase.

He says he didn’t know the complainant prior to the exchange.

During the committee meeting, Cllr Gomez-Aspron, a chemistry teacher in Wigan, denied knowing that spelling “‘See you next Tuesday’” in the way that he had could meant anything offensive.

The councillor, who in 2011 won a share of £100,000 on the game show Million Pound Drop, said: “I’m astounded that because I’m 29 it’s assumed I know the meaning of ‘See you next Tuesday’. It’s ageist.”

He also said that the Facebook conversation was one of two separate conversation taking place at the same time, and added the complainant was making personal comments, “slating my family” on a different thread.

Councillor Marlene Quinn said: “I wouldn’t accept that Councillor Gomez-Aspron didn’t know the meaning of the words. I find this very hard to believe.”

After councillors deliberated for almost an hour, chairman of the committee, Labour Councillor Joe Pearson announced the committee’s decision.

He said: “We are all in agreement that Seve Gomez-Aspron was acting in his role as a councillor and we determine that he breached the code of conduct.”

Cllr Gomez-Aspron was asked to write a letter of apology for the incident to the complainant.