A former district councillor has been sentenced to 20 weeks in prison for stalking the senior Conservative politician Penny Mordaunt, with the court hearing his campaign of harassment left her fearing for her safety.
Campaign of Harassment and Breached Orders
Edward Brandt, a 61-year-old professional sailor and former member of East Hampshire District Council, was found guilty of stalking the MP for Portsmouth North. The trial at Southampton Crown Court was told he sent at least 17 emails and three phone messages to Ms Mordaunt. He also turned up at her constituency office in Portsmouth outside of normal working hours.
This persistent behaviour took place between 11 September 2023 and 12 May 2024. The court heard that Brandt, who was living on the Isle of Wight at the time, failed to comply with a verbal police warning and the terms of a conditional caution issued in April 2024. The caution required him to complete a victim awareness course and not to contact the Tory peer.
"Living in Constant Fear"
In a powerful victim impact statement, Penny Mordaunt, a former Defence Secretary and Conservative leadership candidate, described the profound effect of the stalking. "I am completely exhausted due to the stress," she said. "Every time I step out of the building I am looking over my shoulder and checking to see if he is there. I am living in a constant fear of a confrontation."
In a separate statement to police, she said she "feared sexual violence" due to what she described as Brandt's "creepy" behaviour. The defendant was acquitted of a more serious stalking charge involving serious alarm or distress, but convicted of the lesser offence.
Sentencing and Further Offences
Judge Mousley KC sentenced Brandt to 12 weeks in prison for the stalking offence. A further eight weeks were added to be served consecutively for seven breaches of a stalking protection order. This order, which remains in place until November 2034, required him to inform police of internet-capable devices and new social media accounts.
Brandt breached this order in December last year by failing to notify authorities about devices and creating accounts on Facebook and Snapchat. Sentencing him, Judge Mousley stated: "I am satisfied that there is a real risk of you reoffending or causing harm to other people. Also, having regard to the nature of these offences, the appropriate punishment must be by way of immediate imprisonment."
The court heard that Brandt, a divorced father of two now living in Lymington, Hampshire, left voicemails for Ms Mordaunt. In one, 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 told the court his intention was "entirely political and entirely harmless" and that he wanted to "congratulate her" and shake her "gold-plated and precious hand".
His defence barrister, Timothy Dracass, argued that Brandt's responsibility was "substantially reduced by reason of a mental disorder or learning disorder namely his neurodiverse condition." Brandt told the court he had been diagnosed with ADHD and as being on the autism spectrum.
