Man who bombarded feminine Tory MP and mentioned he’d kill DWP workers faces jail

A person who despatched a string of threatening emails to an MP has been warned he might face jail.

Liam McCarthy admitted “continuously” sending sinister emails and leaving voicemails for Tory MP Caroline Nokes. He focused Ms Nokes, MP for Romsey and Southampton North, between May 2022 and March 2023.

McCarthy, 33, implied the MP was “on his list” together with Labour MP Alan Whitehead, who he threatened to “destroy”. He additionally advised Ms Nokes he deliberate to kill workers on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). He additionally admitted leaving threatening voicemails for Steve Smith, a former official at Southampton City Council threatening to “find you and f***** destroy you”.

Victoria Hill, prosecuting, advised Southampton Magistrates’ Court that the defendant first contacted Ms Nokes to lift a “lack of support for people aged between 18 and 25”. Ms Hill mentioned: “He moved on to talk about issues he was having with the Department of Work and Pensions and a debt collection agency. They didn’t end up seeing one another because the defendant cancelled his appointment because he felt unprepared.

“The emails continued and in August 2022 they started to become threatening. At that stage the defendant was saying he would become violent towards members of the Department for Work and Pensions, he said he would kill them, he followed that up by saying he wouldn’t kill them but would really hurt them.

“Caroline Nokes MP responded saying she would not tolerate threatening or abusive emails however the emails continued from August into September in the identical vein. There had been repeated emails over fairly some interval. At one level he was threatening to destroy one other MP, Alan Whitehead. He was making implied threats to her saying she was on his record together with different individuals.

“He was eventually arrested with bail conditions not to contact her and continued to contact her.” Describing the voicemails to Mr Smith, Ms Hill mentioned: “They were more overtly threatening. He said things like, ‘I will find you, I will f****** destroy you, I swear to god, I mean that as a threat.”

District Judge Anthony Callaway ordered a pre-sentence report back to ready along with a psychiatric report already carried out on the defendant and adjourned the case to be sentenced on May 30. He advised McCarthy: “People going about their business as an MP or otherwise, as Mr Smith was, are entitled to go about their business without fear of being threatened. This is a very serious matter and in my judgment possibly passes the custody threshold.”