Labour’s Jess Phillips has met the man who attacked her constituency office.
The high-profile politician, standing for re-election in Birmingham Yardley, came face-to-face with Michael Roby as part of a “restorative justice” scheme where offenders are introduced to their victims.
The project aims to bring home to criminals the consequences of their actions.
Ms Phillips, 38, told the Mirror: “He was very, very nervous at first. I had to tell him it was fine.
“He was really, really sorry for what he’d done and he was horrified that he might have behaved so poorly that he had frightened me and the people in my office.
(Image: Adam Hughes / SWNS)
“I felt deeply sorry for him and I just wanted to let him off the hook.
“He was much more sorry than I expected him to be. He was deeply ashamed of his behaviour.”
The meeting came six weeks after Roby kicked on the door of the Labour MP’s constituency office while shouting: “Is this the fascist party office?”
The 36-year-old claimed he went to the Birmingham office to discuss losing his job as a warehouse worker.
But magistrates in the city heard he flew into a rage after discovering she was not there and began kicking on the door shouting: “Why are you blocking democracy?”
Ms Phillips’ staff felt “alarmed and distressed” and called police who found Roby in an “agitated” state.
He was arrested at the scene where he admitted he “felt sh*t” about what he had done – but felt his MP had “not been supporting him.”
(Image: PA)
He pleaded guilty to a public order offence of using threatening or abusive words and behaviour.
Roby was fined £40 and ordered to pay £135 in court costs and a £32 victim surcharge.
Ms Phillips asked for today’s meeting through the charity Remedi – and Roby agreed.
Flanked by officers and charity workers, they came face-to-face for an hour at a Birmingham police station.
“What I wanted was for him to be able to say his piece to me,” she said.
“He got cross because I wasn’t here and it made him behave poorly, and he had misconceptions about the way I felt about him and people like him so he got cross and angry.
“He’s had a tricky life and sometimes people mess up.
“I thought he deserves a chance to say his piece to me, as well as hear about how it affected my office.
(Image: Daily Mirror)
“It has deeply affected our ability to help our constituents because now we have security advice saying the office has to be shut – and I wanted him to know that in his actions he was sort of harming democracy.”
As well as Roby’s outburst, the pair discussed Brexit .
He revealed that as a Leave backer, he feared Remain-supporters such as Ms Phillips thought “people like him were stupid”.
She told him: “Never once have I ever said anything like that, I hated it when anyone suggested my constituents were stupid.”
Roby and Ms Phillips discovered they grew up two streets apart in Birmingham and talked about places from their childhoods.
“We are going to see each other again and work together,” she said.
“He has lost his job and he’s had other problems getting services, so I am gong to help him get those services.”
