Hove MP threatened

An anti-lockdown protester has been sentenced to a suspended jail term after he was found guilty of causing alarm, distress & harassment to Peter Kyle MP, the shadow Northern Ireland Secretary.

Lance O’Connor, 57, made a 1.83m makeshift gallows with a noose in Parliament Square in October last year and indicated it was for the Hove MP while shouting “This is what we do with traitors”.

He said he built the gallows as a protest against “draconian” lockdown measures and to remind the government that “treason is still punishable by the gallows”. He denied targeting or shouting anything at the shadow Northern Ireland Secretary saying he had not known that Peter Kyle was an MP and also claiming that Kyle approached him and asked: “Do you think that is appropriate?”

Only a week earlier the Conservative MP for Southend – David Amess – had been stabbed to death while holding his constituency surgery. O’Conner was sentenced to 12 months [suspended] and ordered to pay £200 compensation to Peter Kyle.