Brick attack on Tory’s home as her baby slept
‘I think it was politically motivated’
A TORY local election candidate had a brick thrown at her window while her baby was asleep inside, it emerged yesterday.
Jade Marsden, who is deputy chairman of Merseyside Conservatives, called police after the brick smashed an upstairs window at her home on Sunday evening.
Posting a picture of the broken window on Twitter, the young mother said it was sheer luck that it missed her 12-month-old daughter Adelaide, who had just been put to bed.
And fellow Tory politicians have flocked to support her, with one calling the attack ‘outrageous’.
Mrs Marsden, 31, who came third behind the Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates in Liverpool’s Chessington ward in last week’s elections, later tweeted that the offender was ‘in serious trouble’ and tagged Liverpool’s Labour group.
The tweet has since been deleted, and Mrs Marsden has claimed that she tagged the party simply to ‘make them aware’ what had happened. There is no suggestion anyone from the Labour Party was responsible.
Mrs Marsden, a married mother-ofthree, said: ‘We had not long put the baby to bed when it happened. We heard a big bang and the window went. Luckily the brick smashed the window and bounced out.
‘Adelaide just got a fright, but it’s terrifying to think this can happen while you’re just sitting in your own home.
‘It’s really shaken me up, I’m worried someone has been following me and my children could be at risk.’
Mrs Marsden was criticised by some on social media for supposedly implying the culprit was linked to the Labour Party.
But she insisted: ‘I tweeted Labour to make them aware. The Lib Dems already knew because it also happened to one of their Liverpool councillors on Friday.
‘I’ve no idea who did it, it could have been anyone. I tagged Labour into the tweet because I think they need to be aware of it.
‘I am in no way saying that the party are directly to blame. I get on with all the Labour councillors and don’t think for a minute that any of them would condone that behaviour.
‘There were a couple of people who questioned why I was dragging Labour into it. People will draw their own conclusions.’
But Mrs Marsden, whose husband, Adam, 38, also stood in nearby Woolton in the elections, added: ‘I do find it a bit disgusting that I’ve heard nothing from them (Labour).’
And she said she was convinced the attack was politically motivated.
‘You only have to look at some of the comments on Facebook and Twitter, I definitely think it was politically motivated,’ she added.
‘Someone posted that they wished the brick had smashed my baby’s skull in – I’ve reported comments like that to Twitter and the police as well, they are terrible.
‘I just think it’s too much of a coincidence that a Lib Dem councillor also had a window smashed.’
Other Tory politicians later offered their support on social media. Conservative peer Baroness Jenkin tweeted: ‘Appalled to hear that a brick thrown through the window of Jade Marsden’s baby’s window. Conservative activist on Merseyside and council candidate on Thursday. Also Lib Dem candidate. Coincidence?
‘We must protect women candidates better. Police pls investigate.’
Meanwhile, Tory Chichester MP Gillian Keegan wrote: ‘So sorry to hear this Jade – outrageous.’
Merseyside Police confirmed officers had received a report of criminal damage at a home in Allerton, Liverpool, around 7.30pm on Sunday. They have appealed for anyone with information to contact them.
It is the second time Mrs Marsden has been targeted in less than 12 months. In the run-up to the 2017 General Election, for which she was the Tory parliamentary candidate for Sefton Central, two posters of Mrs Marsden’s face were vandalised. One replaced a slogan with ‘Vote Labour’, and another shaded in her eyes and teeth.