Conservative Councillor charged with rape

Huw Elystan Davies

A TEACHER appears before magistrates charged with rape and drugs offences.

Huw Elystan Davies, of Ewenny Road, Bridgend, also a town councillor in the area, had his case committed to Crown Court for trial.

The 37-year-old faces charges of rape, possessing cocaine and supplying cocaine at his home between November 16 and 17 last year.

He was released on conditional bail until his appearance at Cardiff Crown Court tomorrow.

Davies is head of Welsh at Brynteg Comprehensive School, Bridgend.

Source

Labour - Councillor - Jailed Child Pornography

COMPUTER : Joe Shaw was arrested at Wigan Town Hall

A former Wigan councillor has been re-bailed by police investigating alleged computer child porn.

Joe Shaw, 40, the former member for Beech Hill who lives in Standish, was arrested at Wigan Town Hall last summer by detectives on suspicion of having child pornography on his home computer.
He has been ordered to return to Wigan Police Station on Monday, April 14, pending further inquiries.

Mr Shaw stood down from the council, resigning his position on the Metro's licensing and regulation committees as well as Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority.
Elected to Wigan Council in 2005, Mr Shaw, who is unemployed, represented Wigan West ward.

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UPDATE Jan 07 2009

A former Wigan Labour councillor is facing amended charges in relation to alleged child porn offences.

Joe Shaw, of Avondale Street, Standish, will face 16 charges of making indecent images of a child and one of possessing an indecent image of child when he appears before Liverpool Crown Court on March 10.

The 42-year-old was originally charged with 16 charges of possessing an indecent image of a child, but these charges were withdrawn by the Crown Prosecution Service with the agreement of the defendant.

Mr Shaw made his second appearance before Wigan Magistrates' Court yesterday and was remanded on conditional bail until his first Crown Court date.
He will face two alleged firearms offences on the same date.

Mr Shaw, who joined Wigan Metro in 2004 and represented Wigan West ward for one term (three years), is alleged to have had a prohibited weapon and ammunition without a certificate.

He was arrested at the Town Hall in Hewlett Street in July 2007 .

Source

UPDATE April 17

A former Wigan councillor who downloaded child porn and had a gun and ammunition in his safe was today (Thur) jailed for six years.

A court heard that Joseph Shaw's offending came to light after his daughter found the indecent images on his computer.

She was so shocked she did not initially tell anyone but after she found he had continued visiting child porn sites and also discovered texts on his phone apparently making obscene references to her she told a counsellor who alerted police.

JaIling 42-year-old Shaw, Judge David Swift said, "At the time you were in a possession of public responsibility, a man to whom others might look for an example."

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Shaw had been a Labour councillor for Wigan West for three years and also a member of the Greater Manchester Transport Authority,

Judge Swift told Shaw that the indecent images, totalling almost 2,000, involved the exploitation of children, "some very young indeed." The children had been subjected to "degrading and sickening experiences", he said.

When police raided his home in Avondale Street, Standish, they found a World War 11 .38 Smith & Wesson revolver and 15 cartridges for it in a safe.

Shawk, who had a shotgun certificate, used to be a member of a gun club and must have been aware that the gun was capable of firing live ammunition and must have known it was prohibited, said Michael Scholes, prosecuting.

He said that the indecent images found on Shaw's computer covered all five categories of abuse and had been discovered by his daughter in April 2007.

He told her not to use his computer but she did while he was out and it was when visiting the 'history box' to delete any trace of her usage that she saw he had been visiting child porn sites.

The next month she again checked his computer and found he had visited similar sites.

Her father was arrested in July that year at Wigan Town Hall and when his home was searched it was found to be "chaotic and disordered."

A total of 1,967 indecent images, including still and movie files, were found, including 17 in the most serious category involving sadism.

When interviewed Shaw, who has no previous convictions, described the pornographic images as "disgusting. I wouldn't hurt a kid." He admitted he had developed a fascination for viewing the images out of curiousity and visited illicit websites 2 - 3 times a week.

Shaw pleaded guilty to 17 offences of making indecent images and one charge of possessing indecent images of children. He also admitted having a prohibited weapon, the handgun and ammunition.


He was ordered to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years and Judge Swift also made a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for life banning him from being alone in the company of children.

Source

Tags: Labour, pornography, Paedophile

Conservative Councillor Jailed - Fraud

Not so smug now

A FORMER Tory councillor has been jailed after spending £35,864 on “fine dining and expensive living” and claiming it back on expenses.

Daniel Smy visited London hotels and shops including the Savoy, Royal Horseguards and Selfridges, and claimed for a chauffeur-driven journey from Dorset to the Carlton Club, a court was told.

The former deputy chairman of South Dorset Conservative Association was sentenced to 12 months in prison at Bournemouth Crown Court yesterday. He pleaded guilty to 10 charges of theft and forgery as chairman of the Portman Building Society’s group staff association.

Smy, 35, of Mount Skippet Way, Crossways, was a West Dorset District Councillor when the 10 offences took place between 2003 and 2006.

Smy – who asked the court to take 86 further offences into consideration – is also ex-chairman of Crossways Parish Council.

Prosecuting, Alison England said he was in a position of trust at the Portman Building Society as he oversaw contributions to the staff association. She said treasurer Diana Stevenson realised Smy’s expenses were inappropriate and challenged him about an invoice for a visit to a Dorchester pub.

When previous claims were looked at, cheques with forged signatures were found. Miss England said Smy spent the money leading a life of fine dining and living in top hotels.

The court was told Smy admitted using his employer’s funds for his own use and saw it as a perk of the job as his £18,000-a-year salary was not enough.

In mitigation Robert Grey said Smy was a man of good character with a history of helping people but had felt “a build-up of stress and isolation” and “got carried away”.

He said Smy was on anti-depressants and was “beside himself with shame”.

The Rev Jaqueline Birdseye from the Moreton Parishes told Judge John Beashel of Smy’s involvement with community projects. But he was sentenced to 12 months for each of the 10 offences with the sentences to run concurrently.

Source

Tags: Conservative, False Statement, Theft, Fraud, Daniel Smy

Labour MP - Fraud

Every thing you need to know about Harry Cohen
The King Pig of the Politcal Parasites

The Labour politician with the highest expenses claim of any London MP has denied that he was cheating taxpayers by claiming a second-home allowance while maintaining that his main home is a single-bedroom schoolhouse and seaside caravan 70 miles from his constituency.

Defiant Left-winger Harry Cohen said: 'When MPs were given this allowance they were told "Go and spend it, boys" and that is what I have done. It is my right.'

His comments come as The Mail on Sunday launches a petition to demand a full enquiry into MPs' expenses, to report within three months and NOT after the general election as is currently suggested.

Mr Cohen has claimed every single penny of the maximum £104,701 in Commons expenses in the past five years for his £375,000 property in his Leyton and Wanstead constituency in East London, on the basis that it is his 'second home'.

Astonishingly, he says he has claimed the full second-home allowance since 1990.

It means he has pocketed a staggering £310,714 in total - believed to be the largest amount ever claimed by any MP.

Yet he declares on his Labour website that he and wife Ellen 'live' in Leyton and 'spend weekends at their static caravan' on Mersea Island, an unspoilt stretch of the East Anglian coast.

If his real main residence is the Leyton house, it means his Commons allowance has funded a holiday home completely unconnected with either his parliamentary or constituency duties.

Source and Full Story(Must read)

Tags: Fraud, Labour, MP

UKIP Candidate - Paedophile

No wonder he converted to Islam

A FORMER Worcester UKIP candidate –- who has since converted to Islam – has been sentenced for possessing indecent photographs of children.

Jason Phillips, who stood in the city’s 2007 elections for the Arboretum ward, had previously admitted downloading two indecent images of a child.

Sallie Hewitt, prosecuting, said police were alerted to Phillips when he sent sexually offensive messages to friends of his new girlfriend’s ex-husband through the social networking site Facebook.

When questioned by police he told them he had sent the message to be as offensive as possible.

Police officers seized his computer and in December 2008 it was found to contain the images, which were deemed to be Level 2 photos – the most serious being Level 5.

One had been placed into the computer recycling bin.

Mrs Hewitt said Phillips told police four years previously a friend had downloaded adult porn on to his computer as he thought it was funny, but had deleted it.

In mitigation, Paul Stanley said Phillips had sent the messages after receiving unpleasant messages himself.

Mr Stanley said Phillips was unhappy about being in court and pleading guilty to these offences.

“It’s a possession matter only in relation to two stills which might or might not be real,” he said.

“It has been for him a very difficult period of time. He has never been in trouble with the court before.”

The 33-year-old, of Cyril Road, Rainbow Hill, who has now changed his name by deed poll after converting to Islam to Abdullah Nasser Jihad, will now have to sign the sex offenders register for five years.

Magistrates also sentenced him to a community order with two requirements – that he attend a sex offenders group programme and be supervised for three years.

He was also ordered to pay £60 in costs and a forfeiture and destruction order was made on the computer.

In a letter Phillips wrote to your Worcester News the day before he was sentenced, he explained how he had converted to Islam.

Phillips also said he had been very depressed.

Source

Tags: UKIP, Paedophile

Labour Minister - Expense Fraud

Tony McNulty - He's doing just fine out of us

A Government minister who claimed £60,000 in allowances for the house where his parents live has been reported to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner - by his local Tory MP.

Tony McNulty, the Employment Minister, claimed "second home allowance" for the house in his Harrow East constituency, in northwest London, from 2001 until earlier this year, even though he moved out in 2002 after getting married for the second time.

Mr McNulty lives nine miles away in Hammersmith, whose MP, the Tory frontbencher Greg Hands, reported him today to John Lyon, the Commons standards watchdog.

"Charging as the Member of Parliament for Harrow for a second home in Harrow when you are living in Hammersmith, and neither of these places are very far from Westminster to start with, and at the same time in that second home are living the MP’s parents, then clearly there has got to be an inquiry," Mr Hands said.
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Mr McNulty insists that his claims are legitimate because he used to sleep in the house when he was first an MP. He says that he still uses the house as an constituency office.

But the former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, Sir Alistair Graham, questioned the claim today and said that Mr McNulty might have to pay back some of the money.

"He talks about using it as a base to do constituency work, but he didn’t say that he stayed overnight there," Sir Alistair told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "I think he has a few questions to answer and if he was not staying overnight there there probably should be some money repaid."

It emerged today that the standards committee, set up by John Major in 1994 to help clean up politics - is again considering a wide-ranging review of MPs' expenses, although sources close to the body said that that was not directly linked to the controversy surrounding Mr McNulty.

Sir Alistair, who chaired the committee from 2004 to 2007, backed the call for a full review.

"I think the important thing is that it has been left to MPs to sort out their own arrangements and I think that is a slightly absurd arrangement. I don’t think the public feel they can trust them in this area," he said.

Among those criticising the claim today was Alan Duncan, the Shadow Leader of the Commons, who told the BBC that it was "not clear" that Mr McNulty had operated within the rules.

"The allowance is for a second home, it is not for a constituency office. There he is brazenly trying to bat this away by saying, ’Oh well, the system is not very good but I didn’t do anything wrong’," Mr Duncan said. "There are some serious questions still to be answered."

Source and Full Story

Tags: Labour, MP, Fraud

Labour MP - Fraud

Another corrupt Labour MP

A GOVERNMENT whip was today embroiled in the growing expenses row after claiming thousands of pounds for a second London home despite already having one within 10 miles of Westminster.

Assistant government whip Dawn Butler has claimed £37,245 in taxpayers' cash in two years to pay for a second property.

The Labour MP for Brent South has a house in Wembley, aboutnine miles or a 32-minute Tube journey to Westminster, and a home in Stratford, about eight miles or a 24-minute Tube ride.

She was today facing questions over why she needed the two homes, which are almost exactly the same distance from the Houses of Parliament. Her office has stressed in the past that she moved into the Wembley house after being elected in 2005 to allow her to serve her constituents.

Ms Butler is the second government member to come under fire this week over second home allowances after it emerged Employment Minister Tony McNulty claimed £60,000 for a house in Harrow where his parents live.

Opposition MPs and Ms Butler's neighbours today criticised her housing arrangements.

Greg Hands, Tory MP for Hammersmith & Fulham, said: "These allegations raise further questions. Gordon Brown needs to get a grip on his ministers and their expense claims."

Mark Jansen, 26, who lives two doors from Ms Butler's Stratford home, said: "Most taxpayers can't even afford houses at the moment and yet an elected MP, who is meant to represent us, has two. That just doesn't seem fair, especially in the current financial climate."

Ms Butler claimed £15,442 in second home allowance in 2005/06 and £21,803 in 2006/07. As an assistant government whip, she is entitled to an annual salary of nearly £90,000 including her MP's entitlement of £63,291. Her total expenses' claim, which includes staffing, office, travel, postage, second home and other costs, was £285,356 over two years.

Ms Butler bought the three-bedroom, mid-terrace Wembley home for £250,000 in 2006. It is now valued at about £260,000. Her two-bedroom terrace Str atford home, believed to be the family home she lived in before becoming an MP, is worth around £235,000.

Neighbours today said she is rarely at the Stratford home. Jose Gomes, 40, has lived next door for 14 years. He said: "I used to see her all the time, now I only see her every couple of months. Her brother's here occasionally."

Her neighbours in Wembley said they regularly see her and that she spends the majority of her time there. Speaking at her Wembley home today, Ms Butler declined to answer questions from The Standard about her use of the second home allowance. She said: "I totally resent you coming to my private home. Have some respect. How dare you."

Her spokesman has previously justified the expenses claim and said: "When she was elected she moved straight into the constituency and the [allowance] helps her to do that."

The Prime Minister has backed an inquiry into MPs' expenses by the Committee on Standards in Public Life, and has sought to widen it to include work carried out by politicians outside Parliament.

A number of Tory frontbenchers have lucrative directorships which have been criticised by other MPs.

Source

Tags: Fraud, Labour, MP

Conservative Councillor punched neighbour

A Tory councillor allegedly punched his neighbour in a longstanding feud.

Geraint Jones lost his temper and stormed up to the man "screaming and shouting", before punching him in the head, a court heard.

Hinckley Magistrates' Court was told the men had been arguing for years about neighbour Anthony Harrison having access to his home across Jones's property.

The argument flared when Mr Harrison walked across Jones's property to unload bags of granite chippings outside his home.

He said Jones hurled verbal abuse, then traced him to a nearby house where he was working and hit him.

Jones (61), a North West Leicestershire District councillor, denies assault.

Mr Harrison, a 47-year-old roofer who lives next door to him in Tamworth Road, Ashby, said the punch was thrown two hours later, as he worked at a house in Nottingham Road.

He admitted they had fought before, and that he had beaten up Jones while defending himself in the past.

On this occasion, he said the punch came out of the blue.

He said: "I saw Jones charging down the entryway saying words along the lines of 'What the hell is going on here?'.

"I went to block his path, saying something like 'Get away from this job'.

Mr Harrison said Jones then used abusive language.

"I stood in front of him and he tried to barge past me. He carried on using vulgar language," Mr Harrison told the court.

"Because I wouldn't let him past, he swung a punch. It stung me. I was shocked by the whole incident."

During the earlier incident outside their homes, Mr Harrison said Jones had stood on the other side of a gate "shouting obscenities at me".

The court was told the altercation happened on June 11.

Mr Harrison said in 1996 Jones had attacked him but ended up getting "the worst of it".

The trial is to continue at a later date.

Source

Tags: Conservative, Assault, Violence

Labour Councillor - Illegal Taxi

No prosecution. Why?

OPPOSITION leaders have called for the chairman of Bolton’s planning committee to consider his position after he admitted to operating an illegal taxi.

Labour councillor Sean Hornby has received a “simple caution” after admitting using his car as a taxi without a licence, acting as a taxi driver without a licence, operating a car as a taxi without an operator licence and using his car as a taxi without the correct insurance.

Yesterday, Bolton Council withdrew the case at Bolton Magistrates’ Court as Cllr Hornby accepted the caution — which means he admitted the offences.

His previous “not guilty” pleas were “vacated” — removed from the court.

The case has been ongoing since last August and has cost Bolton taxpayers thousands of pounds.

The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats leaders have called on Cllr Hornby, who represents Little Lever and Darcy Lever, to consider his position.

Tory leader Cllr John Walsh said: “Anyone in public life is accountable. I hope Cllr Hornby will consider his position.”

Cllr David Wilkinson, deputy leader of the Lib Dems and licensing committee member, said: “It is up to Labour to proceed with this as they see fit.

“The planning committee has a lot of responsibility and if the chairman cannot adhere to the rules set by another committee of a similar standing, then questions need to be asked.”

But Cllr Hornby’s solicitor Ajmal Hussain, of AGH Solicitors, said his client would continue in his roles He said: “Mr Hornby has faced considerable stress and anxiety in a saga that has lasted for almost 12 months.

“He now intends to resume his normal personal and political life.

“Mr Hornby, a diligent and committed councillor, intends to continue serving his constituents. He intends to contest the next local elections in May, 2010.”

Cllr Cliff Morris, leader of the Labour Group and Bolton Council, said: “The issue has been dealt with by officers in the appropriate way. There are no implications for Cllr Hornby’s position under the code of conduct for councillors.”

A simple caution is not a conviction, but can be cited before a court on subsequent conviction.

Cllr Hornby, who was elected in 2006, originally pleaded not guilty to the charges, but the council said it opted to issue him a simple caution after he indicated, before the start of a planned trial last Monday, that he was willing to accept it.

A council spokesman said: “We are pleased that the matter has now been resolved and Cllr Hornby has been dealt with appropriately.”

Cllr Hornby was granted permission to apply for his costs from the Central Fund, a fund similar to legal aid but for privately-funded defences.

Source

UPDATE 6 March 09

Councillor Suspended

Tags: disrepute, Labour, Driving

Conservative Councillor - Corruption

Roger Ibbs

A senior city councillor has tonight been bailed after earlier being arrested in connection with a police inquiry into political corruption.

Officers from the Staffordshire Police Major Investigations Department arrested councillor Roger Ibbs this morning.

It is understood that police were called in by senior officers at Stoke-on-Trent City Council following a lengthy internal inquiry.

Police questioned a 61-year-old man on suspicion of corruption in public office before bailing him tonight.

Mr Ibbs, of Kingsway, Stoke, is the leader of the Conservative and Independent Alliance group on the city council and the portfolio holder for children and young people's services.

Source

Tags: Conservative, Corruption, Fraud