Dundee MP Chris Law told a trial he feared he could be the latest politician to follow in the tragic footsteps of murdered Westminster duo Jo Cox and Sir David Amess.
The SNP Dundee West representative said he had to take the threats made by a woman outside his constituency office “very seriously indeed.”
Mr Law told Dundee Sheriff Court that he feared for his safety and bolted into his office after having threats and abuse hurled at him by Alannah Morgan.
Staff described Mr Law as being “panicked and distressed” as he entered the office in Dundee’s Lochee and asked senior case worker Lesley Thomson to phone police.
‘You will all be gone soon’
Mr Law said: “I was getting out my car and an individual shouted at me by name. That’s not unusual, I’m quite well known. They shouted ‘hello Chris.’
“I said ‘what’s up?’ and then I got a whole load of abuse. They were 30 to 40 feet away. They started swearing at me. It doesn’t always feel like you have a concern but this time I did.”
He told the trial that 52-year-old Morgan said: “F*** you. You will all be gone soon. The whole lot of you.”
Mr Law said he told Morgan he would call police and retreated into his office.
The 54-year-old politician said he was used to being heckled by political opponents, but added: “I was concerned at the tone of the language. Anger was the clearest emotion around it.
“There wasn’t that much distance between us and I didn’t want an altercation.
“We lost two MPs who have been murdered and many have had death threats.
“We have had many threats. If we went to the police with every incident it would never stop.
“I am not in the office and not under security in the street so obviously it’s a concern.”
He added: “I don’t think when someone shouts what they did in the tone they did, with that tagged on at the end, that it’s a political statement.
“That could be a very serious threat indeed.
“In the context of the training we have had and the two MPs who were brutally murdered you have to treat it very seriously indeed.
“Somebody shouting so aggressively at me – totally out of the blue – and unprovoked from someone I believed I had never met before I would perceive it as a threat.”
Denies allegations
The MP’s communications officer Gerry Moriarty said: “It was a bit of a surprise to have him at the door so frantic. He seemed very panicked and distressed.”
Another witness Lesley Thomson told the trial that Morgan had come into the constituency office the previous day and had to be ushered out after hurling foul-mouthed abuse at staff.
Morgan, Bonnethill Court, Dundee, denies behaving in a threatening or abusive manner at the Dundee West Parliamentary Constituency office in Marshall Street on November 24 2022.
She denies causing fear or alarm by shouting, swearing and loitering outside after being asked to leave.
She denies behaving in a threatening or abusive manner in Marshall Street the next day by following Christopher Law MP and shouting, swearing and making threats towards him whilst he was walking to his office.
Morgan further denies behaving in a threatening or abusive manner at Dundee police HQ on November 29 by shouting, swearing and acting aggressively.
The trial, before Sheriff Alistair Carmichael, continues next week.
For more local court content visit our page or join us on Facebook.
