Pensioner admits sending racist and threatening emails to MPs

A pensioner who sent racist and threatening emails to six MPs – including one urging Labour MP David Lammy to “remember what happened to Jo Cox” – has pleaded guilty to sending menacing communications.

David Hall, 72, admitted six counts of sending grossly offensive, indecent or obscene messages via a public communication network after changing his pleas at Walsall Magistrates’ Court.

The court was told the Ukip supporter, of Windsor Gardens, Castlecroft, Wolverhampton, sent emails last December to Nicky Morgan, Dominic Grieve, David Lammy, Anna Soubry and Heidi Allen, in the wake of a Brexit debate in parliament.

Hall, who appeared in the dock wearing a leather jacket, slacks and slip-on shoes, also admitted sending an email to Wolverhampton MP Eleanor Smith, calling for her to be put on “the first banana boat” to the “jungle clearing you came from”.

Mr Lammy and Ms Morgan attended court and had been expected to give evidence against Hall, who is due to be sentenced later on Monday.

Opening the facts of the case against Hall, prosecutor Matthew Brook said the email to Ms Smith was sent last July after she made critical comments about the Black Country’s flag.

The court heard that the email to Mr Lammy read: “I would like to give you a friendly warning. As you attack the White population of Britain in your aims to gain Black Supremacy in this country, remember what happened to Jo Cox.

“I AM NOT ONE OF THEM but there are those out there who would like to see you suffer the same fate. Be careful!!”

The email was signed “D.W.Hall ( a well wisher).”

Labour MP Ms Cox was murdered in her Batley and Spen constituency by Thomas Mair in June 2016.

Another email was sent to the other four MPs after a parliamentary vote on an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill last year.

Littered with capital letters and exclamation marks, the email had the subject line: “YOUR BACK STABBING TREACHERY” and read: “You deserve to be HUNG for your attack on our democracy yesterday. WE VOTED OUT OUT OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and your attack on the British VOTE to leave the PARASITIC FRAUDSTERS in the EU amounts to an act of TREASON.

“In WW2 you would have ‘SWUNG’ for this act of TREACHERY – You join a long list of British TRAITORS – MAY YOU BURN IN HELL FOR ETERNITY.”

The email to Ms Smith stated: “How dare you !!!!! HOW SODDING WELL DARE ATTACK OUR FLAG!!! As a Labour/Communist and RACIST you come to MY COUNTRY AND ATTACK OUR CUSTOMS, and EVEN the IDENTITY OF OUR FLAG. I think that YOU MUST HAVE ENRAGED EVERY SINGLE WHITE PERSON IN ‘MY’ TOWN.

“YOU MUST HAVE YOUR ARSE KICKED OUT OF POWER AND BE PUT BACK ON THE FIRST BANANA BOAT TO THE JUNGLE CLEARING YOU CAME FROM!! Our Enoch Powell was dead right in his ‘River of Blood Speech’ 1968 when he said the streets of Britain will RUN RED WITH BLOOD AND YOU HAVE BROUGHT THAT REALITY ONE STEP NEARER WITH YOUR VILE RACIST RANTINGS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Former education secretary Ms Morgan was waiting in a witness room when Hall entered his guilty pleas.

Speaking outside court, the Tory MP for Loughborough said: “I am obviously very pleased that the defendant has pleaded guilty. I am also very grateful to West Midlands Police and to the CPS for the fact they have taken this action and prosecuted this case.

“MPs are of course subject to robust debate, scrutiny … challenge, which is what we should be.

“But when things tip over into threats of violence or death, then I think a line has been crossed and I think it’s important for the sake of our healthy democracy that these things are challenged.”