A man who threatened to car-bomb female Labour MPs and kill Boris Johnson and his girlfriend has been imprisoned for five years.
Rakeem Malik posted the threat to the prime minister from his prison cell just days after being charged over what a judge called “repugnant” notes mailed to Theresa May, while she was PM, and two other female MPs.
Birmingham Crown Court heard Malik threatened to kill and rape Labour MPs Jess Phillips and Rosie Cooper – who both joined a court hearing via Skype – between May and November last year.
Download the new Independent Premium app
Sharing the full story, not just the headlines
Malik, who was already serving time at HMP Birmingham for attempted murder, made threats to bomb Ms Cooper on behalf of “Jihadis of England”, eat Ms May’s corpse, and kill Mr Johnson “by Christmas” in letters.
The 52-year-old was branded “callous, calculating and unemotional” by Judge Samantha Crabb.
She said: “Your offending did involve significant planning, carefully selecting numerous victims at particular times chosen to maximise impact of your letters”.
She told Malik, who is a double leg amputee and appeared in the court dock in a wheelchair, he had shown a “blatant intention to cause maximum harm”.
Malik is already serving a life jail sentence which was enforced in 1999 after confessing to attempting to murder a “cell-mate” whom he tried to strangle with shoelaces at Merseyside’s Ashworth high security hospital. He has also previously been convicted of indecent assault and assaulting a police officer.
In a letter to Ms May when she was PM, which was sent a month after the Westminster 2018 car attack, Malik wrote: “Jihadis of Britain are going to kill the police at the gates. Then I’m going to kill you and then eat your corpse.”
Malik also threatened to use an RPG rocket launcher to kill Ms May.
He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to three counts of making threats to kill Ms Cooper, West Lancashire MP, in May 2019 – as well as admitting to threatening fellow Labour MP Ms Phillips in November 2019 and sending a letter to her with intent to cause distress in December last year.
Writing in other letters to Ms Cooper, who was previously the target of a neo-Nazi murder plot, he said: “Jo Cox was murdered by Thomas Mair and we are going to kill you the same way. Nice car you may need to get it checked when you turn it on it may go bang.”
No hype, just the advice and analysis you need
Malik also admitted sending two letters with intent to cause distress or anxiety to Ms May in September 2018, and another to Mr Johnson on the same day as the final letter sent to Ms Phillips.
A letter to Mr Johnson said: “I’m going to kill you and your girlfriend. I’m going to blow you both up. I’m going to do it by Christmas.”
Malik, who was previously held at a secure psychiatric facility, is thought to have a psychopathic sub-type of anti-social personality disorder.
Malik, who was born Paul Anthony Harrison, was returned to jail in October last year.
Ahead of last year’s general election, campaigners told The Independent women MPs would be standing down due to being subjected to “horrific abuse” and parliament becoming increasingly “bullish” and “intimidating” for women.
Additional reporting by PA
