An ex-Liverpool councillor has been convicted over a two-year hate mail campaign.
Gerard Woodhouse was found guilty of sending up to 100 anonymous cards and letters to Christine Banks between October 2023 and August of this year.
The pair had been colleagues in the Labour-run council for 12 years and known each other for 50 years but fell out over issues on the city’s licensing committee.
Liverpool Magistrates Court heard that Woodhouse’s letters and cards contained abusive language which Mrs Banks attempted to hide from her close-knit family.
She sent the letters to Merseyside Police, who made a breakthrough in the case when forensic evidence linked to historic crimes committed by the 63-year-old.
Woodhouse’s solicitor Kevin Kelly said that the former councillor, who represented the County ward, had suffered mental health problems at the time of the offences.
District Judge James Clarke labelled his client’s behaviour as ‘persistent, wicked and abusive’ in sentencing him to a community order on Tuesday (December 9).
He has also imposed a restraining order preventing him from contacting Mrs Banks.