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.”
This story is from the February 19, 2025 edition of The Independent.
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This story is from the February 19, 2025 edition of The Independent.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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