Man jailed for abusive and racist emails to politicians

A 39-year-old man who sent abusive emails to safeguarding minister Jess Phillips and Sir Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has been jailed for 28 weeks.

- GEORGE THOMPSON

Jack Bennett, from Seaton, Devon, pleaded guilty to sending malicious communications to three people between February 2024 and January 2025, including the Birmingham Yardley MP, at Exeter Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

Bennett’s email to Ms Phillips was sent on 2 January 2025, a day after X (Twitter) owner Elon Musk said the MP “deserves to be in prison” for denying requests to the Home Office for a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham. Mr Musk also later branded her a “rape genocide apologist”.

Bennett was sentenced to 28 weeks in prison. District Judge Stuart Smith said the email had caused Ms Phillips “great distress”. He said: “[She] was concerned for your potential to escalate or to encourage others for violence against her, having in her mind the murder of her colleague Jo Cox.”