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An MP who threatened to throw acid at her partner’s female friend and send naked photos of her to her family has been found guilty of harassment.
Claudia Webbe, 56, also made threatening phone calls to Michelle Merritt because she claimed “we were in a national crisis and lockdown had to be adhered to strictly”.
The MP was accused of threatening to send naked pictures of the 59-year-old to her family because she was jealous of Ms Merritt’s friendship with her partner Lester Thomas – who Webbe remains in a relationship with.
The independent Leicester East MP, who was suspended by the Labour Party, is alleged to have made a string of short silent phone calls to Ms Merritt, called her a “slag” and threatened her with acid between 1 September 2018 and 26 April last year.
Webbe denied one count of harassment and said she called Ms Merritt as a “courtesy” because she was unhappy the 59-year-old had been breaching lockdown rules with Mr Thomas.
Some of the phone calls had their number withheld but some did not as Webbe had dialled “121” before Ms Merritt’s number instead of “141”, which withholds the caller’s number.
Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring said he believes some of the things Webbe said in court were “made up in the spare of the moment”.
“Her explanation was frankly incredible and I do not believe it,” he added.
He also asked for a pre-sentencing report before he determined her sentence because he said threatening to throw acid and send intimate pictures to someone’s family “crosses the custody” threshold. He said he is considering a custodial sentence.
Webbe said she was “deeply shocked” by the verdict, insisted she is innocent and the recording of the call during lockdown had “been taken out of context”.
She said she will appeal the verdict and will continue to represent her constituents in Leicester East.
The MP was…
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Source : skynews
