The Speaker of the House of Commons has paid tribute to two police officers for their work in tracking down a self-confessed racist ‘who sent vile and threatening emails’ to 22 MPs.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle said PCs Zoe Boucher, 28, and Emily Butler, 27, ‘had carried out a brilliant piece of police work’ in locating Benjamin Price, whose victims included Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Tulip Siddiq.
After Price was sentenced for 18 months community order for 26 counts of sending malicious communications, Mr Speaker said: ‘No Member of Parliament should be subject to such racially abusive, threatening, and distressing emails as the ones sent to them by Price.
‘Real hatred was targeted at MPs, particularly female MPs, simply because of their ethnic minority backgrounds. This is totally unacceptable.
‘On behalf of the House of Commons, I would like to thank Zoe and Emily for their dogged determination to bring this man to justice – and for preparing such a thorough case for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to make that happen.’
PC Boucher, who has been a frontline officer at West Mercia Police for almost five years, said many of the MPs targeted ‘were relieved we had discovered who was sending them such vile and threatening emails.
‘We have had a lot of messages from MPs expressing their gratitude,’ she said.
The case was prompted by six MPs reporting to the Met Police’s Parliamentary Liaison and Investigations Team (PLaIT) in November 2022 that they had received racist emails.
PLaIT believed Benjamin Price from Herefordshire was the offender and through the Operation Bridger nationwide police protection security programme for MPs, asked West Mercia Police to investigate.
Following Price’s arrest, PCs Boucher and Butler searched his home and unlocked his phone and other devices to discover a further 15 victims had received racist emails from him.
Praising the officers for their work, Richard Cooper, Assistant Chief Constable of West Mercia Police, said, ‘I am proud of Zoe and Emily. Their determined investigations led to Price admitting he sent abusive racist and misogynistic emails abuse to MPs.
‘Those in public office deserve protection from criminal abuse, and we will come after those flout the law in this way.’
The arrest of Price was a second big success for PC Boucher. In 2020, she received praise for arresting and charging a man for sending a threatening message to Hereford and South Herefordshire MP Jesse Norman.
