Nationalist left MP’s female staff cowering in fear
AN MP’s staff were left hiding in fear after an ‘aggressive’ and ‘intimidating’ independence supporter repeatedly tried to get into their office, a court heard yesterday.
Callum Purdie, 38, made the women so nervous by hammering on the windows that they debated pressing a panic button installed after the murder of politician Jo Cox.
Purdie twice turned up without an appointment to the constituency office of Ross Thomson, the Tory MP for Aberdeen South.
He tried to get the attention of staff by battering on the windows and was seen ‘peering’ over the top of a frosted glass window. Access to the office is granted only to visitors with appointments and staff must first unlock the door.
But office manager Katie Frank told Aberdeen Sheriff Court she had previously had problems with Purdie, also known as McSwan, so told staff not to let him inside. He then kept trying to open the door and look in the windows, and loitered outside the entrance while behaving in an ‘aggressive’ manner, the court was told.
The staff said they were so worried they ended up hiding behind a wall and discussed whether to use the panic button.
Miss Frank, 25, said she then acted on training given in the wake of the 2016 killing of Labour MP Mrs Cox, 41 – who was shot and stabbed while in her Batley and Spen constituency in Yorkshire – and reported Purdie’s behaviour to police and the parliamentary security services in London.
Yesterday, Purdie went on summary trial for threatening and abusive behaviour outside Mr Thomson’s office relating to two dates in June.
The court heard Miss Frank recognised Purdie because she had previously spoken to him on the phone and it had made her uneasy, so she subsequently looked him up on social media.
Camera footage shown to the court showed Purdie – who is not a constituent of Mr Thomson – pacing at the front of the building for some time on June 7, checking the window and coming back to the door several times in the space of a few minutes.
Miss Frank told the court: ‘I was intimidated because of my previous dealings. My previous conversations had been about bigger issues like Brexit. In my opinion he just wanted to give his opinion. It was just going round in circles.’
The court also heard Purdie returned on June 11 and behaved in a similar manner – while Miss Frank was alone in the office – although he stayed for a shorter period of time on that occasion.
Miss Frank’s colleague, case worker Louise Jones, 26, started crying as she told the court about the first incident with Purdie, when he repeatedly tried the office door, rang the doorbell and ‘banged’ on the window with his fist.
She said: ‘I remember discussing whether to use the panic button or to call the police.
‘He came across to me as a angry presence at the door. It made me feel very apprehensive.’
Iain McGregor, defending, said Purdie was no more than an ‘annoyance or a nuisance’.
But Miss Jones said: ‘I would not say so. I felt very nervous walking to work in the following days.’
Sheriff Philip Mann took only minutes to find Purdie guilty of threatening and abusive behaviour.
Purdie, of Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, had previously admitted breaching the terms of an undertaking not to approach Mr Thomson’s office.
Sheriff Mann deferred sentence until next month to consider a non-harassment order.
He said: ‘This has arisen out of some sort of divergence of political opinion. If you don’t take the message then there is a high likelihood you will appear in this court again.’
Mr Thomson, who attended court, said afterwards that the safety of his staff was of ‘utmost priority’.
On Purdie’s Twitter profile, he describes himself as a ‘proud supporter of Scottish independence’ and strongly in favour of a second referendum on separation.
‘Felt very nervous walking to work’