Man jailed over smear campaign against mp has told BBC he is ‘outraged’ by revelations
Richard Catt has been jailed for eight yea충주출장샵rs and nine months.
Catt was convicted of 14 charges of engaging in a vicious campaign of malicious communications to damage the reputation of his own constituency colleague and a 점보카지노former MP after a 15-month trial.
The disgraced politician, who is the chair of the Conservative Friends of the House of Commons committee on parliamentary affairs, was also ordered to pay £100,000 in costs to his former party.
‘Very, very sorry’: David Cameron on the Catt scandal (BBC News)
David Cameron spoke of his ‘deep remorse’ for the Catt scandal on the eve of the vote on his coalition deal with Labour, adding that there had been’very, very serious mistakes’.
However, he said Catt should always have known better and he was ‘outraged’ by the news that former cabinet minister George Freeman had written a letter to Catt saying he was a “sick, twisted piece of shit”, which the then chairman of the Conservative Friends of the House of Commons committee, Lord Coe QC, confirmed in court on Wednesday.
Catt was convicted in February after police and prosecutors established a dossier of emails showing Catt and members of his party engaging in a smear campaign targeting the reputation of ex-MP Tom Watson.
This prompted Watson and a rival former Conservative MP, Mike Gapes, to reveal they had launched a legal action against Catt for alleged bullying and harassment.
Catt and his co-accused, former cabinet minister Geoffrey Dickens, were also tried before a judge in October 2013 over alleged comments that were published by a blogger in December 2010.
However, a number of emails between former Tories and supporters did not make it into the investigation.
In his closing arguments, Judge Stephen Brown QC said he was sure former cabinet minister Geoffrey Dickens would have known Catt was involved but he believed other politicians were not as reckless as Catt.
The Labour MP and former chairman of the committee said his party believed his former boss had been ‘a very clear and honest man’ and that his actions were an act of good faith.
However, the judge said Catt had committed a ‘disease for more than six years’, adding: “This has brought this to the point where I am very, very sorry that Mr Catt has now b출장 마사지ecome a laughing stock in the House of Commons.”
He added