Former Labor MP Claudia Webb has lost an appeal against her sentence for harassing a love rival, but her sentence has been reduced.
Webb, who represents the Leicester East constituency as independent after being ousted by Labor, received a suspended sentence for harassing Michelle Merritt between September 2018 and April 2020.
Following a hearing in Southwark Court on Thursday, her appeal was rejected by Judge Taylor and two magistrates, but her 10-week suspended sentence, which she received last November, was reduced to 80 hours of community service.
Webb has to pay £ 50 in compensation to the victim instead of the £ 1,000 originally ordered.
In a statement after the appeal, Webb said: “I am deeply shocked by today’s outcome. As I said in court and I repeat now, I have never threatened violence, nor would I. “
She said she wanted to thank all those who supported her, adding: “These are the people who know me: my character, my values and my behavior – they know that I could not be guilty of this crime.
Labor has previously said it will push for a withdrawal petition to call a by-election if Webb does not resign after the appeal. A party spokesman said: “The allegations in this case are extremely serious. The Labor Party rightly expects elected representatives to maintain the highest standards at all times.
“Mrs Webb must resign so that the people of Leicester East can get the representation they deserve.
Prosecutors said the 18-month Web harassment campaign was driven by “obsession” and “jealousy” over her then-friend Lester Thomas’ relationship with Merritt, an executive assistant.
The court heard Webb call Merritt “slag,” which “must be acid,” and threatened to reveal nude photos of her family in a series of phone calls.
Webb, a former adviser to the Council of National Firearms Police Chiefs, was found guilty of harassment by Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring after a trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court last year.
Following the appeal, the judge said the court found that Webb had not “threatened to throw acid on Merritt,” but that a series of silent phone calls and threats to reveal her nude photos were “harassment-like behavior.”
Webb was elected in December 2019, winning the seat he previously held from Labor veteran Keith Vaz.
Thomas, a Crossrail consultant, football coach and Chelsea scout, was expected to testify for the first time in Web’s appeal. But the politician said she broke up with him in March, when new sexual messages between Thomas and Merritt were discovered.
Thomas was sitting in the public gallery while Webb claimed to have been a victim of “domestic violence and coercion.”
Giving evidence behind a screen, Merritt admitted that she had sex with Thomas – whom she described as a “attention-loving narcissist” – between March 2017 and July 2020.
Webb said: “I had no idea about the relationship between Michelle Merritt and Leicester Thomas, that this relationship has lasted throughout my relationship with Leicester. That’s why I was shocked and I couldn’t handle it. “
MP Helen Lowe’s lawyer suggested that Merritt had “lied” or “tricked” the magistrates’ court when she said she and Thomas were just “good friends”.
But prosecutor Susanna Stevens said: “What happened between Michelle Merritt and Lester Thomas is actually useless in the applicant’s case, because Claudia Webb’s suspicions about all this give her motivation, not protection.
The court heard that the harassment began with silent phone calls in September 2018 and “escalated” on March 31 of the following year, when Merritt said that Webb had told her: “Friends do not send friends pictures of tits and pussy. You are slag and you have to be acid. ”
The court heard that Merritt was calling the police to report that “I was threatened by a public figure with acid”, but received 17 more phone calls lasting 14 seconds or less from the Web after the MP was warned to stop connects to it.
In a phone call made and recorded by Merritt on April 25, 2020, Webb is heard saying, “I saw all your nude photos. Get out of my relationship, otherwise I’ll tell your whole family and show them all your pictures. “
In a statement, Webb said she acted out of “fear and frustration” that Merritt and Thomas had socialized during the blockade, and said Merritt was “actively planning and planning my fall and humiliation.”
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