Hereford man admits sending racist emails to 22 MPs including prime minister
Benjamin Price sent 18 emails with some containing "grossly offensive content".
Last updated 25th May 2023
A man has admitted sending "grossly offensive" messages to 22 MPs including the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary.
Benjamin Price pleaded guilty on Wednesday to 26 different offences against politicians, which also included Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Tulip Siddiq, at Hereford Magistrates Court.
The 32-year-old sent 18 emails containing racist abuse, with the remaining eight sent to MPs of varying ethnicities and included "grossly offensive content", according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Price, of Belmont Road, Hereford, Herefordshire, sent his first racially abusive email in January 2022, with the others sent between 19 and 21 November that year.
Richard Purchase, senior Crown prosecutor for the CPS West Midlands, said: "Members of Parliament have difficult jobs to perform which leave them open to public scrutiny but that is no excuse for Benjamin Price's behaviour.
"It is unacceptable for people to subject MPs to personalised abuse, including discriminatory abuse.
"In circumstances such as these, those who behave in this way will be breaking the law if they send emails that are grossly offensive, and we will always prosecute when our legal tests are met.
"Mr Price has accepted that he sent such emails and has pleaded guilty to the charges he faced."
Price was initially arrested on 23 November last year for the first six offences and answered no comment during his police interview.
But searches of his mobile phone found further victims and he was rearrested on 4 January this year.
The CPS said that Price had no specific intention in sending the emails but accepted that he was racist and had targeted many of the MPs because of their race.
He will be sentenced on 20 June.