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A LIVERPOOL man who bombarded Louise Ellman MP with phone calls and emails has been issued with a restraining order to stop him contacting her in future.

John Bradley, 48, of Grove Street, Edge Hill, Liverpool, wrongly believed that her staff were preventing him from seeing the Liverpool Riverside MP.

His campaign culminated in a “particularly hostile” voicemail he left at the constituency office, Liverpool Magistrates’ Court was told.

Neale Evans, prosecuting, said Liverpool Riverside MP Mrs Ellman was the “complainant” or “the main target” in the case which involved inappropriate contact between January and early February this year.

“Some of the contact may initially have been over a legitimate dispute but it turned into open hostility, certainly to members of staff,” he said. “He believed wrongly they were frustrating him from seeing his MP.”

Bradley eventually visited the office but colleagues in London were so concerned they phoned ahead to say he was en route.

Mr Evans said the defendant did not believe staff when they told him Mrs Ellman was not there but the prosecutor conceded he displayed no bad behaviour and left without any trouble.

Bradley pleaded guilty to harassment at an earlier hearing. A more serious charge of harassment in which he was said to have left the MP and three staff members in fear of violence was dropped.

Sentencing Bradley, District Judge Wendy Lloyd said: “Your approach to Mrs Ellman went far beyond the acceptable and became criminal.”

The judge gave Bradley a conditional discharge of two years and warned him he would be back before the courts if he committed an offence.

Bradley was also issued a restraining order preventing him from directly contacting Mrs Ellman and her staff for two years and told to pay £100 court costs.

