You may have seen reports in the news over the past week but I wanted to explain to you myself what happened.
I was the MP that raised the alarm and blew the whistle on the Westminster 'honeytrap' situation, altering both the police and Parliamentary authorities to the issue.
To explain a little further...
Last month I reported two incidents of cyber-flashing and malicious communications to the Police.
I was approached by two different numbers on WhatsApp who purported to know me. The first messages came through when I was with my wife, the second came through 10 days later when I was in the office with my team.
After I tried to verify who was messaging me, I was sent unsolicited sexually explicit images. I immediately blocked the numbers and reported them to the Police and Parliamentary security.
I was able to screenshot the written messages and my team recorded the explicit images which meant we could share this information directly with the Police.
There is an ongoing police investigation into the matter so I wanted to keep the matter private – knowing, as well, how things can be misrepresented by the press – but when journalists discovered Leicestershire Police were investigating this following a report by a Leicestershire MP, they soon discovered it was me.
So I recorded this video so that people can hear what happened directly from me: I reported phishing messages to the Police - YouTube
Since I posted this video I have been blown away by the amount of people from our area and across the country who have seen my video and come forward to share that they have also experienced similar incidents. Yesterday I spoke to the BBC about my experience and the impact this can have on people who are targeted by phishing scams.
If you want to hear the full story you can listen to my interview here, plus a senior BBC Correspondent shares that he also received messages from the person who targeted me: 'I was targeted in Westminster cyber-flashing plot' - BBC Sounds (my interview starts at 5 mins 40 seconds)
Most importantly, Charlie and I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to reach out to us since this happened and share kind messages. It’s greatly appreciated. I also want to thank Leicestershire Police for supporting me through this as the police investigation continues.
I have been as open and transparent about the situation as I can, given there is an ongoing police investigation, however if you have any questions or concerns please do reach out, I'll be happy to answer them as best I can.
