Man jailed for sending threatening emails to Conservative Caroline Nokes
Defendant also left threatening voicemails for council officer and threatened to ‘destroy’ Labour politician
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
A 33-year-old man has been jailed for seven months after sending threatening emails to a female politician.
Liam McCarthy, of Copperfield Road, Southampton, “continuously” sent emails and left voicemails for Conservative Caroline Nokes, over 10 months, from 15 May 2022 to 4 March 2023.
She was then the MP for Romsey and Southampton North, and is standing for re-election.
McCarthy also left threatening voicemails for Steve Smith, former head of stronger communities, neighbourhoods and housing, at Southampton City Council between 14 and 21 November 2022.
He was jailed for seven months at Southampton Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
At a previous court hearing, he had admitted harassment.
Victoria Hill, prosecuting, previously told the court that the defendant first contacted Ms Nokes to raise a “lack of support for people aged between 18 and 25”.
Ms Hill said: “He moved on to talk about issues he was having with the Department of Work and Pensions and a debt collection agency.
“They didn’t end up seeing one another because the defendant cancelled his appointment because he felt unprepared.
“The emails continued and in August 2022 they started to become threatening.
“At that stage the defendant was saying he would become violent towards members of the Department for Work and Pensions, he said he would kill them, he followed that up by saying he wouldn’t kill them but would really hurt them.
“Caroline Nokes [then] MP responded saying she wouldn’t tolerate threatening or abusive emails but the emails continued from August into September in the same vein.
“There were repeated emails over quite some period. At one point he was threatening to destroy another MP, Alan Whitehead.
“He was making implied threats to her, saying she was on his list along with other people.
“He was eventually arrested with bail conditions not to contact her and continued to contact her.”
Describing the voicemails to Mr Smith, Ms Hill said: “They were more overtly threatening. He said things like, ‘I will find you, I will f****** destroy you, I swear to god, I mean that as a threat.”
Additional reporting by PA