Election threat supporter fined
Filmed and drove nearTories out canvassing
An SNP supporter who threatened two Stirling Conservatives while they were out canvassing in the run-up to last year’s General Election was this week fined a total of £500.
Lorna Taylor had been filming with her mobile phone while driving a van at Roundhouse, Cowie, on Thursday, May 25 last year – out of which had been blaring loud music.
Conservative Party members Gregor Ironside and Jeremy McDonald had been canvassing with other party members in the village that evening.
In a street off Roundhouse, Mr McDonald became aware of the accused driving a white Renault van with its windows down out of which loud music was playing.
Fiscal depute Susan Campbell told Stirling Sheriff Court on Monday that the occupant of the house where Mr McDonald had been canvassing had been trying to put a baby to sleep and had been disturbed by the music.
Mr McDonald approached Taylor and observed her holding up her mobile phone as if to film him. He asked her to turn the music down, but she refused.
Mr McDonald and Mr Ironside started to walk along Roundhouse and the accused followed then in the van driving very slowly and close to them.
They found this intimidating and crossed the road as they were concerned about being hit by the van, said the fiscal depute. Ms Campbell added: “Throughout this the accused continued to use her mobile phone to film what she was doing.”
Officers attended at Taylor’s Hilton address in Cowie, on Thursday, June 1. She told them she had been driving the vehicle, but made no reply when cautioned and charged.
Her lawyer Stephen Maguire told Sheriff Wyllie Robertson that Taylor and her husband both had health issues.
The accused, he explained, received disability living allowance of £320 and £64 carer’s allowance for her husband.
He pointed out that the incident occurred after the Manchester bombing atrocity of Monday, May 22, after which there had been a cessation of election campaigning.
Mrs Taylor thought that covered all canvassing until the Friday. However, national campaigning had been suspended until lunchtime on the Friday, said Mr Maguire, and local campaigning had in fact resumed on the Thursday.
However, she took the view that campaigning on the Thursday, should not be taking place at all.
The lawyer said Taylor had expressed her concern to “a more senior member of the party” out canvassing who, the lawyer said, responded, with “a brief Anglo-Saxon” phrase. The footage had been uploaded to social media.
Mr Maguire said Taylor’s behaviour had been “entirely out of character” and occurred in the “heat of the moment.”
Taylor, he said, had been a member of the SNP, but was no longer a member of the party.
He added: “As a consequence of what happened, and the publicity at the time, Ms Taylor is extremely embarrassed and shamefaced about what happened.”
She had also apologised to the SNP and to her own MP at the time Steven Paterson.
Mr Maguire said Taylor was passionate about her beliefs, but respected democracy and the right for other people to have differing views.
He added: “She was not trying to impose her own views on anyone else that night.”
Taylor admitted charges of using a mobile phone while driving and behaving in a threatening and abusive manner when she appeared at Stirling Sheriff Court on Monday.
The 53-year-old’s not guilty plea to a charge of culpable and reckless conduct was accepted by the Crown.
Sheriff Robertson said he found it “incongruous” that Taylor was driving a van with loud music blaring during what she thought was a period of national mourning.
Mr Maguire said she had just been to the shops and “matters had progressed from there.” Taylor, he added, had not been out canvassing.
Sheriff Robertson fined Taylor £100 and endorsed her driving licence with six penalty points. She was also fined £400, reduced from £500, due to her guilty plea, on the charge of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner. The fines were payable at a rate of £10 per week.
A spokesman for Stirling Conservatives said this week: “Threatening and intimidating conduct towards political candidates is never acceptable.
“She was also using a mobile phone while driving which puts everyone at risk. People should be free to express their views and get involved in politics without this kind of harassment.”