A man has been jailed for 15 months for leaving a threatening and abusive voicemail for a female Conservative MP.
Zakariyya Farah, 27, targeted Lucy Allan, MP for Telford, in December 2015, hurling abuse down her answerphone.
The call was quickly traced back to Farah, and a voice expert confirmed he was responsible for the message, Southwark crown court heard.
The incident came just days after Ms Allan had voted with her Conservative colleagues in favour of a bombing campaign by the UK military in Syria.
Ms Allan had publicly complained that she was enduring abuse from constituents about her vote in favour of military action, posting examples of the messages she had received. However, she was caught out on December 4 2015 adding the words “unless you die” to a message sent to her.
Three days later, Farah, who lives in Tottenham, separately targeted Ms Allan with his abusive call. He denied being responsible for the abuse, despite police officers tracing it to his phone, and insisted at trial he had not made the call.
But a jury convicted him of a charge of making malicious communications, and yesterday Judge Martin Griffith sentenced him to 15 months in jail.
DC Karl Latham, who led the investigation, said: “Malicious communications will not be tolerated. I hope this case serves as a warning to others who think they can get away with abusing or threatening an MP or anyone else.”
