Brooks Newmark: Conservative MP compares being subject of newspaper sex scandal sting to rape
The disgraced Tory, who will stand down in 2015 following scandal, said he felt like he had been 'mentally raped'
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Your support makes all the difference.A Tory MP who resigned as a minister over an internet sex scandal at the end of September has described what happened to him as like being “mentally raped”.
Brooks Newmark, who has said he will stand down as an MP altogether at next year’s general election, was caught up in a Sunday Mirror sting during which he sent naked pictures to a fictitious Conservative Party activist called “Sophie Wittam”.
The methods used by the paper are currently the subject of a press watchdog investigation. In an interview with a local newspaper, the Braintree MP described how he felt “violated” and had been diagnosed with depression since the scandal.
Mr Newmark told the Colchester Gazette: “It's as though somebody drilled a hole in your head and mentally raped you, that's what it felt like: somebody raping your mind because things you thought were private were no longer private, that is the emotional trauma one feels.”
The 56-year-old said he blames “nobody but myself” for the actions that were exposed at the end of September this year.
“But how I felt as a result of it was like my mind had been violated and it is beyond humiliating because you never imagine this would happen to you,” he said.
Mr Newmark also revealed that he started seeking psychiatric help three weeks ago, and that his subsequent diagnosis for depression could be linked to the anorexia he suffered from as a teenager – a subject he has spoken about in the past.
The married father-of-four said he felt he had “let [himself] down really badly” and that he did not think it possible to “tough it out” after the story broke.
“"Lots of people in public life just plough on, it doesn't matter; they keep their jobs, they keep working and in time they either work things out or they don't work things out.
“Everyone sets their own standard for themselves and I feel I have let myself down really badly and I feel that very deeply,” he said.
Mr Newmark told the newspaper he had plans to stay in Essex and work with a homeless charity after he stands down in 2015.