A man who sent a threatening letter to the MP Anna Soubry telling her that she would be murdered like Jo Cox has been jailed.
Alden Bryce Barlow, 55, from Doncaster, sent the Nottinghamshire MP a message reading “COX WAS FIRST YOU ARE NEXT”. The letter arrived at Soubry’s constituency office in Broxtowe on 14 October and was opened by a member of staff, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
At Sheffield crown court, Barlow admitted sending a letter conveying a threatening message and was sentenced to 12 months in jail. He was also given a 10-year restraining order covering Soubry, who is standing as a candidate for the Independent Group for Change in the general election.
Barlow was traced using fingerprint analysis and CCTV from the post office counter in Doncaster where he posted the letter.
Soubry was previously a Conservative and had several ministerial jobs under David Cameron.
The prosecutor in the case, Gerry Wareham, called the note “sickening” and “ominous” and described it as an “attack on democracy”.
He said: “Ms Soubry and her staff in the constituency office understandably found the message deeply disturbing and highly offensive. I hope the sentence Barlow received today is of some comfort to Ms Soubry and her colleagues and a deterrent to anyone else contemplating such despicable actions against a parliamentary representative or candidate.”
Cox was the Labour MP for Batley and Spen when she was stabbed and shot outside a constituency surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire, in 2016.
