A MAN accused of sending abusive emails to a number of current and former MPs has had his case sent to the Crown Court.
Paul William Maciver Ritchie appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court by video link yesterday for a brief administrative hearing. The 34-year-old, from Dolphinton in Lanarkshire, is accused of 28 counts of sending a letter, communication or article conveying a threatening message against a series of politicians.
Ritchie did not enter any pleas during the 12-minute hearing. Deputy chief magistrate Tan Ikram said the matter will be dealt with at Southwark Crown Court in London on March 25.
Court documents show Ritchie is accused of sending former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn an email in March 2019 containing the message “you should be hung for treason you f****** terrorist”.
The same month he sent an email to the Speaker’s office, saying “one in 17 million is bad odds for some nutter to pull a Jo Cox on you and your staff”, the indictment said,
and added in another email: “Be careful ... [y]ou wouldn’t want to get run over.”
In other messages to Bercow’s office, Ritchie is alleged to have threatened “I’m going to milkshake you, you prick”, and made references to Brexit and democracy.
In an email on May 2019 to former politician Chuka Umunna, Ritchie is alleged to have written: “You have been warned ... shut your f****** mouth boy.”
In July that year, he is said to have followed up with: “If you kill Brexit ... [w]e will kill you and your entire family.”
Court documents allege Ritchie told Swinson she deserved to be hung and claimed to Rudd that she was “definitely going to be assassinated”.
In a couple of messages to Blackford the same month, court documents say Ritchie sent the threats “I hope you die” and “I dare you to come to the pub in Westminster and say some of the shit you do in the house”.
He was released on bail.
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