.jpeg?trim=0,0,0,0&width=1200&height=800&crop=1200:800 "‘The White Lotus’ saw a surge in searches for one anxiety drug. Doctors give a stark warning – UK Times")
An ex-councillor has been found guilty of stalking Dame Penny Mordaunt.
Edward Brandt, 61, was convicted following a trial at Southampton Crown Court which heard that the former Conservative Party leadership candidate feared “sexual violence” and believed he was a “real threat”.
The jury returned the guilty verdict by a majority of 10 to two.
Brandt was, however, acquitted of the more serious offence of stalking involving serious alarm or distress.
The trial was told that Brandt sent at least 17 emails and three phone messages to Ms Mordaunt, as well as turning up at her Portsmouth constituency office out-of-hours between September 11, 2023 and May 12, 2024.
Brandt, who lived on the Isle of Wight at the time, failed to comply with the terms of a conditional caution issued in April 2024 which required him to complete a victim awareness course and not to contact Dame Penny, the trial heard.
The divorced father-of-two, who now lives in Lymington, Hampshire, then left two voicemail messages for her on May 6 and 10 and in one of the messages, he said: “I am going to go on gently knocking at your door in order to shake your hand, I am not giving up.”
Brandt, who worked as a professional sailor, was also made subject to an interim stalking protection order at Isle of Wight Magistrates’ Court on July 16 2024.
Dame Penny said in a statement to police that she “feared sexual violence” because of the defendant’s “creepy” behaviour.
Brandt wept and held his hands over his face after the verdicts were returned by the jury.
Judge William Mousley KC adjourned the case for a pre-sentence report to be prepared on Brandt and released him on conditional bail until the sentencing hearing on January 16.
He said: “You will be sentenced on Friday January 16, a pre-sentence report will be prepared by the Probation Service.”
Clearly emotional at times, Dame Penny told the court: “I have been a parliamentarian for 14 years and during that time I have had to deal with all kinds of threats and issues.
“It’s different from your average citizen, I am quite used to dealing with this and I am quite a robust individual.
“The difference between this case and even threats to shoot me and my family, they are easier to deal with because that threat is not constantly present, it’s not something you are having to think about every single day when you are leaving your house.
“I am not a professional, I do not have counselling experience but I have a lot of life experience and dealing with vulnerable people or people who are mentally unwell or strange in another way, and I believe this man was a real threat to me and still is.”
Explaining why he wanted to meet Dame Penny, Brandt, a former councillor for East Hampshire District Council, told the court: “I wanted to commiserate with her for not getting the top job in the autumn, I think she would still have been prime minister if she had been.
“I wanted to congratulate her because she was a reforming leader of the Commons, I wanted to congratulate her on the coronation, chat to her about her time in office, have her sign a copy of her book.
“It was entirely political and entirely harmless.”
Brandt, who said that he had been diagnosed as having ADHD and being on the autism spectrum, said that he had not had responses from Dame Penny’s office about his requests to meet her, and added: “I wasn’t getting a reply, I harmlessly kept trying.”
