Overview
- Leeds Magistrates’ Court imposed an eight-week custodial sentence, a five-year restraining order, and a 50-metre exclusion zone around the constituency office, allowing contact only for genuine constituency business.
- Kevin Smith sent around 300 texts and three voicemails to the office over March 6–15, 2024, with many messages containing explicit antisemitic threats including calls to “kill the Jews.”
- CPS and West Yorkshire Police analysis found Alex Sobel saved as a contact in Smith’s phone, undermining Smith’s claim that he did not know who he was messaging.
- District Judge David Kitson said targeting an MP signified high culpability and undermined democratic institutions, noted the MP’s fear for his family, and reduced a proposed 10-week term to eight due to the defendant’s health.
- Smith pleaded guilty to sending a malicious communication on November 11, 2025, and the Community Security Trust welcomed the conviction as prosecutors emphasized that menacing abuse of MPs falls outside free speech.