Judge likens Aftab Ahmed to Walter Mitty during sentencing over threat to David Robinson-Young in pre-election campaign

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A judge sentencing a man for threatening to behead a Ukip election candidate has told him he was like the fictional character Walter Mitty.

Aftab Ahmed, 44, made the threat during a heated argument on the phone with David Robinson-Young in the run-up to the general election. The 62-year-old former police officer, who was Ukip’s candidate in Newcastle East, said he was left feeling extremely concerned for his personal safety.

Ahmed, of Heaton, denied a charge of making a threat to kill but was convicted after a trial at Newcastle magistrates court.

Sentencing him to a 12-month community order, Judge Stephen Earl told Ahmed: “I’m still not convinced if I know who you are. A character I can most align you with is Walter Mitty.”

Earl said he was not sure whether Ahmed was the “self-assured entrepreneur” he claimed to be, or a person who made such remarks on the phone to political parties.

But he told Ahmed he did not think the remark had been serious and that it displayed a “lack of mature thought”.

“I am satisfied that the threat that was made from your point of view was a throwaway remark at the end of an agitated phone call,” he said.

Robinson-Young said that in April someone calling himself Mr Khan rang him after receiving a Ukip leaflet. He said he listened patiently for 20 minutes but warned the man he would put the phone down if he did not calm down.

The barrister, who specialises in employment law and discrimination cases, said at the time: “Mr Khan then swore at me saying, ‘you had better f*** off or you will be beheaded next.’”

Robinson-Young added: “This caller was ranting on and on saying that the government supports bombing ‘my Muslim brothers’ abroad.

“If he had let me answer his questions I would have told him that I am the former legal officer for the Race Equality Office in Newcastle-upon-Tyne as well as working on behalf of Muslims many times.”

Following the verdict on Wednesday, Robinson-Young said he felt vindicated after effectively being called a liar by the defendant.

In the light of the murder of soldier Lee Rigbyand Islamic State’s barbarous treatment of its captives, the lawyer said, he was left feeling cold.

“Someone phoning up like that, in the light of what was going on in the world, with what happened to that poor soldier in London, and [suspected Isis beheader] Jihadi John, meant I had to take it seriously,” he said. “Doing what I was doing at the time, knocking on doors throughout the constituency, meant I took it as a real threat.”

Ahmed was sentenced to 100 hours’ unpaid work and told to pay costs of £1,660.