Westminster Magistrates’ Court has convicted a man of stalking former Education Secretary Sir Gavin Williamson.
Sir Gavin told the court he was “incredibly threatened” by Simon Parry, 45, who followed him from the Parliamentary estate toward Euston on June 14. In another incident, Parry approached the politician on May 24, walking in “close proximity” to him and making comments about vaccinations.
Parry was “quite aggressive” and the incident felt “very unpleasant,” Sir Gavin told the court on Wednesday.
“You felt as if this was part of intimidation or sort of trying to make a publicity work or something along those lines,” Sir Gavin said.
On the second occasion, Parry approached the former minister in June and again made comments about vaccinations and also about “genocide.” At that moment, Sir Gavin was on the phone with a constituent and asked her if he could stay on the phone with her as a “comfort” to himself.
The court heard that Parry flashed a warrant card to Sir Gavin and spoke about arresting him.
“I can hear constant references to police, police, police, and saying about arresting me and at this stage… the defendant then shows what looks like a Metropolitan Police badge, but it was just a crest. I felt incredibly threatened by it,” Sir Gavin said.
After Parry was arrested on June 15, he said he was not a police officer and had been referring to making a citizen’s arrest.
Sir Gavin accepted that the defendant didn’t say he was part of the police force. District Judge Tan Ikram found that evidence was “so poor” in relation to the police impersonation charge and told the court there was no case to answer in that respect.
However, the judge ruled that the two incidents “taken collectively amount to harassment of Sir Gavin.”
“The defendant thinks there is humour in relation to what he does. He uploads it onto social media. Objectively, he ought to have known the course of conduct amounted to harassment. I am sure of that,” the judge said.
The court convicted Parry, of no fixed abode, of one count of stalking.
Commenting on how the incidents affected him, Sir Gavin said that he didn’t really know what Parry was capable of doing, when he followed the politician.
“You sadly do hear of instances where people have used a knife or such thing in the past, so you get quite fretful as to whether you’re in that type of scenario and an incident like this just makes you more fearful,” Sir Gavin told the court.
When interviewed by the police, Parry denied flashing a police badge. Instead, he showed Sir Gavin a badge that read “law enforcement.” Parry told the court that he got the badge from the political organisation Save Us Now.
Parry denied intentions to harass, distress, humiliate or intimidate Sir Gavin. The defendant arrived at court on Wednesday, accompanied by Piers Corbyn, the brother of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The sentencing for the case will take place at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Nov. 16.
Sir Gavin has held the position of MP for South Staffordshire since 2010. He served as defence secretary from November 2017 to May 2019. He was sacked by then Prime Minister Theresa May over a security leak from the National Security Council.
He then took on the role of education secretary in July 2019 and served until September 2021.
Last November, Mr. Williamson resigned as a Cabinet Office minister after WhatsApp text messages revealed that he criticised the former Conservative chief whip, Wendy Morton, for not ensuring he was invited to the Queen’s funeral.
