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| Phillip Hollobone MP |
Marcus Ambrose, 41, of Church Lane, Cransley, was convicted of harassment at a trial at Northampton Magistrates' Court on Friday, 11th March 2022.
Harassment is an offence contrary to section 2 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. It has a maximum penalty of 26 weeks' custody and/or an unlimited fine on summary conviction.
The court heard that Ambrose contacted Phillip Hollobone, the Conservative MP for Kettering, because he was seeking to escalate a complaint against Northamptonshire Police.
Significantly, although unknown to the court at the time of his trial, Ambrose had earlier been convicted of harassing Northamptonshire Chief Constable Nick Addersley.
It would appear that Ambrose was dissatisfied with Mr Hollobone's handling of his grievance against Northamptonshire Police, so orchestrated a campaign of harassment against him.
Between 24th June and 8th July 2021 the vexatious constituent attempted to contact Mr Hollobone on 242 occasions.
Giving evidence, Mr Hollobone said:"This had really crossed a line and I was feeling upset. I was rather alarmed that he was contacting me so often. Eventually I felt really quite frightened that he could potentially come round to my house."
He added: "I have never had anything like this in all my 17 years (of being an MP)."
A few days later Ambrose turned up at the Kettering Constituency Conservative Association office, which resulted in Mr Hollobone sending him a cease and desist letter.
Rather than calm the situation, it would appear that Mr Hollobone's letter sent Ambrose's behaviour "off the scale".
Prosecutor Mark Fielding asked Mr Hollobone: "Did he make any specific threats?"
Mr Hollobone replied: "He said if you do not sort this out I am going to come round to your house with my dogs."
A couple of weeks later, on 28th July 2021, Mr Hollobone was out jogging on a bridleway close to Ambrose's home.
He noticed Ambrose's car drive past before turning around and pulling up alongside. Ambrose started to film him.
Mr Hollobone was alarmed by Ambrose's presence, which caused him to jump over a gate and seek refuge in Cransley Wood.
The MP, who managed to hide in the wood, said that Ambrose followed him shouting "you cannot run away" or words to that effect.
Ambrose later emailed the Northamptonshire Telegraph and falsely claimed that the MP would be arrested because he had "caught him on his driveway".
He posted further malicious allegations on the newspaper's Facebook page, including claims that the MP beat up his ex-wife and was arrested for child molestation in Honduras.
Mr Fielding said: "There is not a shred of evidence that this took place."
He added: "You can imagine how this would make a man feel, said against him not just in a public forum but to the police."
Ambrose claimed he had been told of the allegations by Independent councillor Jim Hakewell. Mr Hakewell, appearing to give evidence, denied making any such allegations.
Paul Webb, defending, said Mr Hollobone had "turned a deaf ear" to his client's desperate plea for help.
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| Northampton Magistrates' Court |
Giving evidence, Ambrose told the court that he had been wrongly accused of a crime in 2010 and had been fighting to clear his name ever since. He accused the authorities of sweeping the matter "under the carpet", despite him having evidence that they lied.
Ambrose said: "He was my last port of call. I had tried everything and did not know what I had done wrong. It was just a case of 'please, help me'.
"He was my voice. I just wanted someone to stick up for me. I just felt my voice was being taken away and I did not have a voice."
Senior District Judge Paul Goldspring, the Chief Magistrate, considered his decision over lunch.
He announced that he had found Ambrose guilty, adding that the former businessman's account had been untruthful and "designed deliberately to manipulate".
Ambrose was sentenced to 16 weeks' custody, with 10 weeks' to run consecutively for the activation of his suspended sentence order.
He was also made subject to an indefinite restraining order, prohibiting him from contacting Mr Hollobone by any means.
Before being led from the dock, Ambrose turned to face Mr Hollobone, present in the public gallery, and apologised for his conduct.
2 comments:
While not excusing his conduct in law, I can understand this sort of behaviour given the high-handed way the authorities treat people in this country. I have no sympathy for the MP involved. I now view all politicians with contempt, and I am quite glad he was given a fright. He wasn't harmed and it may have done him some good, or will have if he possesses any residual humility at all. The offender (who may in fact be the real victim in the case) seems to be saying that his MP was ignoring him and/or not taking his complaints seriously. No doubt MPs will have to deal with unbalanced/unstable people from time-to-time, but the onus on the MP - if he is any good - is to tease out of the complainant's account any facts that may provide the basis for a solid complaint, rather than just take at face value what is said and arrogantly dismiss the complaint as beneath consideration.
I notice that constituency MPs will often fall back on the excuse that they cannot intervene in cases that are or have been before the courts, yet they are all-too-ready to mouth-off about controversial cases and judicial decisions, and the criminal justice system in general, when it suits them, despite in most cases knowing little or nothing about the law. The reality is that Parliament - consisting of people like this MP - has ridden roughshod over due process in the criminal justice system, abolishing key protections in a bid to appease the greater mass of the public, who are ignorant and dim. It's good that this MP has finally been introduced to a real constituent! I think there should be more like this chap, not less, and I wish the Magistrates had said so.
Thanks for commenting. I think people do hold less respect and trust in politicians in general, although they should not allow that to influence their conduct towards a politician in particular.
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