When I first encountered the Claudia Webbe harassment case I assumed wrongly that it was merely a bit of personal argy bargy with no sinister overtones. However finding out that this offence related to a sustained campaign of harassment against a women Webbe didn’t want associating with her partner and also involved the threat by Webbe of an acid attack against the woman, changed my view somewhat. This wasn’t argy bargy or some snowflake being offended by mere words, this was an actual credible threat of violence by Webbe to the woman victim.

For once at least the justice system has actually worked and Claudia Webbe has been found guilty of one count of harassment. According to Guido Fawkes who is reporting on this case, the judge is considering a custodial sentence. Guido said that even if this sentence is suspended then it is likely to trigger a recall election. Whether any possible recall election results in the people of Leicester East being represented by someone of better quality than the less than stellar intellect of Claudia Webbe or their previous MP, slippery Keith Vaz, is a moot point. However what is plain to see is that the people of that constituency deserve much better representation than they previously have had.

Threatening someone with an acid attack is a very serious matter. I would hope that in this case a custodial sentence is imposed especially as in Britain we have cases where people using hurty words about a footballer ends up with a gaol term of two months.

It’s bad enough for a private person to threaten an acid attack but for an elected official, which Webbe was at the time of the incident as she was sequentially a councillor in a London borough and then an MP, it’s worse.

I really thought that Webbe would be able to worm her way out of this but it seems that the evidence of her threats and stalking of the victim was too strong. Thankfully she did not worm her way out of a conviction and if a custodial sentence is imposed then we could be in for a very interesting byelection.