In October last year, Nadine Dorries MP told Anglia Tonight that she had reported “four stalkers” to the police. Recently, Tim Ireland made a subject access request under the Data Protection Act to Bedfordshire Police in relation to this, and he was given a letter which Dorries had sent to the Chief Constable on 10 July 2010. The letter complained about four persons: three of them are bloggers and Twitter-users who had criticised her performance as an MP; the fourth, it transpires in Tim’s latest blog post, was her Liberal Democrat rival in the 2010 General Election:
[REDACTED BY POLICE], Tim Ireland and [REDACTED] talk about me almost all day and are arranging to meet with with others, in [REDACTED] which is where I [REDACTED] on the 20th of this month.
My former Liberal Democrat opponent remains more circumspect; however [REDACTED – read “she”] is part of the group. [She] Tweets as [REDACTED]
Tim’s name was not redacted as it was he who made the subject access request request for the letter. However, we can be sure that the other two persons in the first paragraph are the bloggers/Twitter-users “Mrs Humphrey Cushion” and Chris Paul, while the “Liberal Democrat opponent” is an obvious reference to Linda Jack, who Tweets as @Lindylooz (scroll to end of post to see further evidence that this is the correct identification). As Tim observes:
I hear this Linda person did all sorts of stalkerish things like distributing pamphlets and knocking on doors and disagreeing with Nadine Dorries and stuff. Who knows, she may even have deluded herself into thinking that she could one day replace a woman chosen by God to be an MP. How DARE she etc. etc. etc.
These are the “four stalkers”, whom Dorries wanted the police to suppress and criminalise. The hubris is astonishing.
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Tim’s previous posts have dealt with Dorries accusations against himself and against Mrs Cushion (which led to vexatious visit from the police while Mrs Cushion was bedridden and in pain, following an operation which Dorries claims Mrs Cushion was lying about needing). Today’s post also deals with Chris Paul – Dorries complained to police that he had “apparently hung around outside my house”, and that “some people suggest [his] interest is sexual”. Dorries supposedly got this information from “a journalist”, but Paul denied the claim on Twitter at the time:
@ChrispLOL FFS @nadine4mp. Last time in Woburn (once in 5 years) blogged pic of fabled Black Horse pub. NOT hanging round outside your huge farm.
Tim adds:
To be clear, [going near someone’s home] is not something I approve of (or enjoy) when it is done to intimidate, and I do not intimate or suggest for a moment that Chris Paul has been anywhere near Dorries home(s), but there are many circumstances that would make the investigation of any property this MP was living in an entirely legitimate exercise both morally and legally; many people suspect Dorries had been (almost) caught pretending to live in one place while actually living in another and that the hysterical noises she made were not there to ensure privacy or security, but instead to hide a pattern of behaviour that might reveal expenses fraud (which is what she would be guilty of if she had been claiming ‘second home’ expenses on a home she lived in most of the time). The former Mayor of Bedford (the late Frank Branston) once showed a passing interest in where Dorries lived. She smeared him as a stalker. A newspaper journalist once photographed the tiny gatehouse she claimed was her main home. She smeared him as a stalker. Chris Paul got a photo of the local pub. She smeared him as a stalker.
…There’s been some long-overdue talk about misogyny in online bullying lately, but this is the ugly flipside of that same coin; women pretending to be the focus of unwanted sexual attention in order to discredit and intimidate a critic.
Tim notes that Paul’s blog received several anonymous comments on 10 July 2010, which is the same date as Dorries’ letter. The first comment claims that “Mr Dorries” (sic – Paul’s post discussed her estranged husband) is “with the Police lodging a formal complaint”, while the second stated that:
Your blog and bloggerheads are both guilty under section 5. Your Twitter account and that of others you talk to are also guilty. Humphreycushion and others. I have no idea why Dorries hasn’t been to the police about the lot of you.
One thing for sure though, you will never see Peter Hands name anywhere, even though he was with Jacko today in Bedford firing her up. He will make sure nothing leads back to him when you are all payng your thousand pound fines.
Tim explains that whoever wrote this must have been aware of the letter’s contents – the letter also references Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986. “Jacko” is again Linda Jack, while Peter Hand was a former Dorries staff member who had reported a £10,000 expenses claim to police.
Correction: I originally wrote that Tim had received the letter following a Freedom of Information request, rather than following a subject access request under the Data Protection Act.
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