Sex texts Tory unfit to be MP
SCANDAL OF SEX TEXTS MINISTER
Tory Andrew Griffiths faced calls to quit as an MP last night from Imogen Treharne, left, one of two women he bombarded with sex texts
DISGRACED Tory Andrew Griffiths vowed to stay on as an MP despite calls for him to quit after bringing shame on his family and party in a frenzied sexting spree.
The married dad resigned as a minister after it emerged he sent barmaid Imogen Treharne and a pal more than 2000 messages, which crudely detailed violent sex acts and pleaded for explicit images.
The MP for Burton and Uttoxeter in Staffordshire yesterday sent a second grovelling apology to constituents as he begged: “Judge me on my actions and achievements during eight years as MP rather than a few moments of stupidity.”
Disgusted Imogen, 28, said: “He’s resigned as a minister but not as an MP. Why? He’s accepted what he did was wrong, so why is he clinging on?”
She added: “The only people he hasn’t apologised to is us. Where’s our apology? It just confirms that he still just sees us as pieces of meat. He’s just saying sorry to the people affecting his future – not the people he’s actually been affecting.”
Paul Walker, chairman of Burton and Uttoxeter Labour party, said Griffiths had no option but to quit the seat.
He said: “He’s disgraced himself, embarrassed his family and his constituents. He should be taking a long look at himself and considering whether he’s morally capable of continuing as an MP.”
Constituent Emily Sendell, 24, said: “He should resign as MP. His voting record shows he doesn’t support vulnerable, disadvantaged people, and now doesn’t support family values.”
Our sister paper the Sunday Mirror revealed the former government whip, who previously served as Theresa May’s chief of staff, sent Imogen and her pal £700 and offered to rent a flat to meet for sex.
Imogen says Griffiths, 47, had followed her on social media for months before contacting her on June 16 after she posted a racy video to her Snapchat followers. He sent her a message asking if she did it to get a “reaction” from him.
She suggested a threesome with a pal of Imogen’s he had seen on social media, and over the next three weeks the trio exchanged thousands of messages detailing how Griffiths would make them his sex slaves, while he paid them cash for clothes and booze.
Imogen and her pal engaged consensually out of curiosity, until his messages became vulgar. Imogen said: “He was responding to all our public posts. Watching us, almost.”
On June 24, Griffiths said: “You knew I would see your post and it would wind me up. Didn’t you?... All the guys perving over you.”
On Father’s Day he demanded “treats”. Later texts were darker, including threats of violence such as: “She’s so
cute. So sweet. I can’t wait to beat her.”
Imogen said: “I’m not saying we got taken advantage of, but he knew that we liked older men and he knew why. He could see it a mile off. He spotted a vulnerability. He thought I appeared like a dolly bird with no brain online... that’s what he wanted.”
She told of her relief that a planned meeting in London never went ahead – as she says he went on to boast of harming women in violent sex before they broke off contact on July 6. Imogen said she told her story “so people like this wouldn’t be in power”.
She added: “People are telling me he’s a horrible scumbag. A lot of women have been sending me messages saying it’s long overdue.
“There’s no chance that we’re the only girls who’ve been involved in something like this. It always seems to be politicians.”
Griffiths, who has three-month-old daughter Alice with wife Kate, 47, said in a statement yesterday: “I would like to apologise to everyone in Burton and Uttoxeter for my actions over a two-week period. The messages were written during a period of great personal pressure and in no way represent my views or actions.
“My behaviour fell well below the standards expected of me. I hope that people will judge me on my actions and achievements during eight years as MP for Burton and Uttoxeter rather than a few moments of stupidity.
“My priority now is my family, and rebuilding their trust. I am undertaking professional treatment to ensure I never make the same mistake again.”
In an earlier statement as he quit as small business minister he said he was “deeply ashamed” of the embarrassment he caused to the Government.
Local Labour campaigner Sue Greenwood said she interviewed him in 2015 about politicians’ use of social media in elections. She claimed he told her of an “epiphany” during a visit from Jim Messina, campaign manager for then US president Barack Obama. He told her Messina had asked: “What’s the first thing you think about in the morning and the last thing at night?” He added: “I said the answer was sex but it was my smartphone! It’s the first thing I reach for in the morning and before I go to bed.”
Sue thought nothing of it until Imogen said he flooded her with messages “as soon as he woke up and as soon as he went to bed”.
She said she also saw him in a supermarket on Father’s Day, less than 24 hours after he first contacted Imogen. She said he was “sweating in his suit and seemed excited and nervous”.
Sue said he talked of it being his first Father’s Day as a dad and that he was buying treats.
She added: “Now I wonder whether he’d actually just sent that treats message to Imogen.”
IMOGEN TREHARNE, BARMAID, ON GRIFFITHS PURSUING HER He thought I appeared like a dolly bird with no brain, that is what he wanted