A former secondary school teacher who sent Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch and her husband racist emails and claimed to have been in the IRA has been jailed. Kieran Kyle, 43, was sentenced to 20 weeks in prison on Monday (November 9) at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Threatening emails sent to MP
Kyle wrote to Mrs Badenoch’s parliamentary email address: “When I was in the IRA I would have shot you f****** dead.” Two earlier emails made racist references, including: “I’m ex-IRA, so Bloody Sunday references from you are going to give you trouble.”
The messages were sent on May 2, the day Mrs Badenoch apologised for footage from Bloody Sunday being mistakenly used in a social media clip. The clip criticised a parliamentary Bill on legacy issues in Northern Ireland.
Background and context
Tory leader Mrs Badenoch said she did not sign off the video, which was sent out by ‘very young people’. Posted to her social media channels on April 28, the video criticised the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill, showing Mrs Badenoch saying the Labour legislation would ‘drag’ Troubles veterans back to court.
On January 30, 1972, a date known as Bloody Sunday, 13 unarmed civilians were shot dead when members of the Army’s Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights demonstrators in the Bogside area of Derry.
Further emails and sentencing
Kyle, of Gillingham, Kent, also sent an email to Mrs Badenoch’s husband Hamish on April 29, using a racist term and saying she had a ‘big mouth’ and he should ‘put a leash on her’. On May 2, Kyle used a racist term and said ‘misusing Bloody Sunday is a new low, pray she never ends up in Belfast cos she’ll be left face down in a ditch with a bullet in her head’.
Having pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to two counts of sending communication of an indecent or offensive nature, Kyle was sentenced by Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring. Baiju Thittala, defending, told the court Kyle ‘did not know’ who Mrs Badenoch was at the time, adding ‘he only realised later, once he had sent the emails’. The judge stated: “The first emails were sent to Mr Badenoch, so I don’t think he did not appreciate who Mrs Badenoch was. So he clearly knew who Mrs Badenoch was because he researched her husband’s details first.”
Mr Thittala also told the court Kyle had never been an IRA member, despite claiming so in his emails. Prosecutor Ben Holt noted that the North West Essex MP and her husband were left ‘distressed’ and ‘upset’ by the ‘racist language and threats of violence used towards them’. Cheryl Bacon, head of Mrs Badenoch’s parliamentary office, said the emails were ‘disgusting’ and 'distressing' to read.
In a victim impact statement read to the court by Mr Holt, Mr and Mrs Badenoch said: “Our primary concern arising from this offence is not the personal impact on us, but the wider consequences that malicious communications and targeted harassment have on our democratic life. When individuals choose to intimidate, threaten, or aggressively target elected representatives or public figures, the harm extends far beyond any single person. It undermines a healthy democracy.
“Public service relies on people being willing to step forward, often at significant personal cost, to represent their communities and contribute to public life. Increasingly, however, those who do so face hostility, harassment, and attempts to silence or intimidate them. Harassing politicians and public figures damages our democracy, deters good people from entering public service, and diminishes the quality of leadership available to us all. That is the real impact of this offence, and it is why addressing such behaviours matters.”
Kyle was also handed a restraining order, meaning he cannot contact Mrs Badenoch, her husband or her parliamentary office for five years.
