Watchdog says Cardiff councillor John Dixon's Twitter message 'likely' to have breached code of conduct for local authority members

A councillor is facing a disciplinary hearing after calling the Church of Scientology "stupid" on Twitter, it emerged today.

The Welsh public standards watchdog investigated Cardiff councillor John Dixon's short message and decided it was "likely" to have breached the code of conduct for local authority members.

News of the ombudsman's decision prompted a flood of messages of support on Twitter for Dixon, the council's executive member for health, social care and wellbeing.

Tweets included an offer to find a lawyer to fight his case pro bono and many others defending his right to free speech.

The case centres on a message posted by the Liberal Democrat councillor during a visit to London.

It said: "I didn't know the Scientologists had a church on Tottenham Court Road. Just hurried past in case the stupid rubs off."

The message was posted on an account called CllrJohnDixon. He has since set up a second account, JohnLDixon, for his "more personal musings", in which he describes himself as a "microbiologist and web developer, into science, rugby and web geekery".

By 3pm today, Dixon's number of followers on Twitter had trebled.

One supporter said: "Instead of a disciplinary hearing, they should canvas all the electorate to see if they agree with you. I think they just might."

Another wrote: "We're all behind you mate, if any disciplinary action goes ahead it will be because the stupid rubbed off on someone."

Dixon later tweeted: "Just seen all the retweets about my ombudsman's judgement. Um... Wow... Thanks."

A spokeswoman for the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales confirmed there had been an investigation into Dixon.

The investigation had found there was likely to have been a breach of the code of conduct local authority members must follow.

The ombudsman has referred the case to Cardiff council's standards and ethics committee, which will consider it in the autumn. It will have to decide if there has been a breach and, if it finds there has been, consider any sanctions.

A spokesman for the Church of Scientology said: "The complaint was made by an individual Scientologist who was personally offended by the comments."

The spokesman suggested people go to their website to find out about the church and its founder, L Ron Hubbard.

Dixon argued that the remarks were made in a personal capacity rather than as a councillor, and said his Twitter name was CllrJohnDixon only because JohnDixon had been taken.

He told the Guardian he was in London in June last year to buy a wedding ring for his wife-to-be – which he also tweeted about. Other postings made at the time included remarks about visiting a relative in Richmond and going to a musical.

Dixon said he thought the remark about the Church of Scientology was "whimsical" and had thought nothing more about it until he began to suspect that members of the church were following him on Twitter.

He posted another message: "Just realised the Scientologists are following me. Quick everyone, pretend you're out."

But he said that, in December, the ombudsman received a complaint about the remarks. Councillors are obliged to carry out their duties with due regard to the principle that there should be equal opportunity to all, regardless of their religion.

Dixon said that even if he had been speaking in an official capacity – which he maintains he was not – he was surprised at the complaint going so far.

"As a Liberal Democrat, I'm used to having things said about me. You take it on the chin," he said.

He said he did not have very strong opinions on Scientologists before the saga. "Having done some research on them, I take a harder line now," he added.