Councillor who called for PM to be hanged for treason did not breach code of conduct: report

A councillor convicted of making offensive Facebook posts about the Prime Minister did not breach the code of conduct, an investigation has found.

Wilkin Chapman Solicitors decided that Richard Alderman was not acting in an official capacity when he made the statements and so had not breached the code.

Mr Alderman, an Independent, was elected to Rutland County Council last July in a by-election in Oakham South West, where he tied with the Liberal Democrats and won by drawing lots.

A few days later the council received complaints about the content of his Facebook postings, which included a call for Theresa May to be hanged for treason.

Council leader Oliver Hemsley said at the time: “We wholly condemn the use of racist and bigoted behaviour. This is not acceptable in our communities or our council.”

He said he believed Mr Alderman, who resigned as a councillor in February, had breached the code and referred the matter to the monitoring officer and police. 

Mr Alderman was convicted last September of four offences under the Communications Act and sentenced to a six-month curfew between.7pm and 7am.

This had the effect of preventing him attending council meetings, so leaving him liable to disqualification for non-attendance.

Rutland refused in December to grant him a dispensation to avoid this.

A council statement in February noted Mr Alderman had resigned and said his former seat would be contested on 2 May.

The report by Wilkin Chapman explained: “What must be considered here is to gauge an objective view. That is, whether the actions of Councillor Alderman were such that a member of the public, knowing all the relevant facts, would reasonably think that his actions were so significant that it would impact on the council’s ability to properly carry out its functions.”

It said it was “evident from the complaints received by the council that Councillor Alderman’s comments caused concern to a number of people.”, but “we consider that a reasonable person would realise that Councillor Alderman’s comments were his individual opinions and did not represent the views of the council”.

Mark Smulian