To Cardiff, where a former Conservative politician has pleaded guilty to harassing their ex-wife. Katie Wallis, formerly Jamie Wallis who represented Bridgend from 2019-2024, today admitted to sending unwanted messages both over the phone and via voice note and will be sentenced next month.
Wallis had been in a relationship with ex-wife Rebecca Lovell for over 15 years, before divorcing in 2024. The 41-year-old former politician – who became the UK’s first transgender MP in 2022 – had lawyer Narita Bahra KC agree an eleventh-hour deal with the prosecution for a guilty plea, after first applying for an adjournment for a psychiatric report to show Wallis had experienced a ‘psychotic breakdown’ during the police interview. The barrister also claimed that this period of harassment coincided with Wallis’s transitioning and that the ex-MP had been dealing with gender dysphoria-related mental health issues. Bahra claimed that Wallis’s mental health had ‘spiralled’ and added that the politician’s ex-wife ‘did not want to Dr Wallis to come out full-time as transgender’.
For Lovell’s part, the prosecution noted that:
The Crown will say that following the victim informing the defendant of a new relationship the defendant’s behaviour has become harassing in nature. The frequency, nature, and contents of the messages and voicemails amounted to harassment of the victim. Despite being arrested on 28 February and released on police bail the defendant has continued to send messages to the victim.
Indeed, after speaking to the prosecutor, Bahra concluded Wallis had listened to Lovell’s case, taken a ‘very pragmatic view’ and chosen to plead guilty.
This isn’t Wallis’s first run-in with the law. In 2022, the former Bridgend politician was fined £2,500 – as well as being ordered to pay £260 in prosecution costs plus a £190 victim services charge – when she was found guilty of failing to report an accident and leaving a vehicle in a dangerous position after crashing her Mercedes into a telegraph pole in 2021. In their eight-page Party Review into the 2024 election, the Tories say they want better candidates next time. If the rest are anything like Wallis, you can see why…
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