Angela Rayner 'burst into tears' after being blamed over alleged murder of MP, court hears

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner “burst into tears” and was left “scared out of her wits” after being blamed over the alleged murder of Sir David Amess, a court heard.

Stuart Kelly, 53, and Michael McGrath, 70, both pleaded guilty today (Thursday, March 17) to sending offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing messages to the MP for Ashton-under-Lyne. Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard that both men linked her comments at the Labour Party conference, calling Conservatives “scum”, in September last year to Sir David, 69, being stabbed to death at a surgery in his Leigh-on-Sea constituency in Essex.

On the day of the MP's death, Kelly left three voicemail messages for Ms Rayner, 41, at her constituency office during a 30-minute period. One said: “I hope you get shot. You contributed to his death, you dirty scum”, and in another he told her: “Well done, he’s a father-of-five. Well done, you’re a great MP.”

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In the third message, Kelly said: “Murderer, f****** murderer.”

Former barber McGrath sent an email to Ms Rayner’s office in the early hours of the following morning in which he branded her a “vile bitch” and “tasteless lefty scum”. “Hope it never happens to you,” he wrote. “I bet you will be celebrating.”

Ms Rayner said in a statement that she is “no stranger” to criticism, which she usually sees as “people exercising their right to free speech”. “When I saw the contents of the email together with the voicemails I burst into tears,” she said. “It made me feel extremely upset.

“I believe I have quite a thick skin when it comes to name-calling and nasty comments, but this was in a completely different category. I