A Hove woman has been acquitted of sending persistent annoying emails about Gaza to her MP, Peter Kyle, following an “administrative error”.
Claire Kerrison, 54, was originally charged with two counts in relation to a string of emails she sent from 10 June to 15 June, one of sending an indecent or offensive message and one of racially aggravated harassment.
But at her first court appearance, this was amended to a single charge of persistently making use of public communication network to cause annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety – crucially dated just from 10 to 11 June.
This meant emails the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) were relying on as part of their case against Kerrison were not admissible – and after a district judge ruled the charge could not be amended again, it withdrew its case.
Mr Kyle said: “I’m devastated that a stand against anti-semitism and abuse of my staff was impacted by an administrative error and I hope that the police can bring the case back to court, to allow a judge to view the distressing content.
“It’s so vitally important that in our stand against racism and abuse those who break the law are tried in court. This is not about pro-Israel or pro-Palestine – this is about being pro-human, pro-fairness and pro-antiracism.”
Brighton and Hove News understands the emails sent included calls for “and end to Israel” or for it to be “wiped from the map”, celebrated bombs being dropped on Tel Aviv, and described Jewish people living in Hove as “permanent victims who continue to whine”.
In a letter to Mr Kyle, CPS chief crown prosecutor Kris Venkatasami said: “As part of the process of amending the original charge, a revised charge was submitted to the court.
“Unfortunately, due to an administrative error, the dates of the alleged offending were incorrectly recorded as 9 to 10 June, rather than the correct period of 9 to 15 June. This amendment took place during case management hearings in November 2025.
“The issue came to light in May 2026, when the defence served a skeleton argument. In June 2026, the prosecution sought to amend the charge to reflect the correct dates, consistent with the evidence served.
“However, the chief magistrate refused the application. An application by prosecution counsel to adjourn the proceedings was also refused.
“In light of these rulings, the case could not properly proceed based on the defective charge before the court, and the prosecution had no alternative but to offer no evidence.
“Following this outcome, we sought advice from senior counsel on whether there were grounds to challenge the decision by way of appeal or judicial review. Regrettably, the advice received was that there were no arguable grounds upon which such a challenge could properly be pursued.
“I would also wish to acknowledge the member of your staff who provided a statement and indicated a willingness to give evidence in these proceedings.
“I recognise that doing so can be a difficult and unsettling experience, and I am grateful for their willingness to assist the prosecution.
“I fully recognise that this outcome will be disappointing. I would like to assure you that we are carefully reviewing the circumstances that led to the administrative error in this case, and appropriate steps will be taken to ensure that lessons are learned and the risk of such issues arising in future cases is minimised.”
A press release issued on behalf of her barrister Rabah Kherbane’s chambers, Doughty Street, said: “A skeleton argument was filed on behalf of CK, denying the emails were persistent or that their purpose was to cause annoyance, and that her communications were protected by her rights under Article 10(1) of Schedule 1 of the Human Rights Act 1998.
“On 15 June 2026, the date of trial, the prosecution applied to amend the charge to include additional emails between 12 and 16 June 2025. On submissions on behalf of CK, the chief magistrate refused the prosecution application, and a further application to adjourn.
“The prosecution offered no evidence. The case against CK was dismissed.”
A CPS spokesperson said: “Hate crime and abusive communications have no place in our society. We recognise how serious these messages were and the impact they had on those affected. We apologise to the victims for not being able to prosecute this case.
“We are carefully reviewing the circumstances of this case to ensure lessons are learned to avoid this in the future.”
At least Kyle responded albeit by trying to throw his constituent in prison. I can’t even get a response from Chris Ward
Another MP who may shortly need to find his P45 now the Starmerite regime is over.
Found not guilty in court? No worries, the press will happily publish the pro genocide spin
In this case, wasn’t found anything at all, the judge literally couldn’t rule on case.
What did Ms Kerrison say when you approached her for comment?
You did approach her for comment, didn’t you?
Full story here – including statement by Ms Kerrison:
https://greghadfield.medium.com/exclusive-how-labour-mp-peter-kyle-triggered-a-4am-police-raid-on-a-constituent-for-writing-to-dd012f23122e
May I ask has Peter Kyle’s and several senior Labour figures’ friendship with police paedo sting subject, former Labour Friends of Israel vice chair Ivor Caplin ever been looked into? Caplin ran a pornographic X account followed by a Labour Who’s who and the CPS. Perhaps we’ll never know the full extent of the entire goings on with the whole subject.
“CPS blunder”?
In what way is it now illegal for residents to email their local MP about their concerns?
I thought that’s what local MPs were supposed to be there for!
Whether Kyle agreed with his constituent’s views or not is immaterial. He had no right to get her arrested over them. Net result, he has now undermined public confidence in the integrity of MPs, as well as harming his own reputation. Certainly any ambitions of one day being PM are well and truly out the window. In fact, why he shoule be prosecuted for wasting Police time forced to pay compensation to his constituent and forced to resign for abuse of public position.
Depends on the context of those emails though, Tracy. A count of indecent or offensive message and one of racially aggravated harassment is a little more than simply sending multiple emails, you have to agree.
Having read the emails in Greg Hadfield’s article, the worst that could be said about them is perhaps she sent a few too many. Passionately expressed but written in a civil manner. Certainly not a person who posed any kind of safety threat to Peter Kyle, which might be the only possible excuse for his sinister and despicable action sending police to barge in and arrest a middle-aged female constituent with two pet dogs at 4am in the morning. Thank God, he’s never going to be PM if he thinks that’s acceptable and not abuse of both the Police and his position.
I’ve not read them, where do you think the racially aggravated part is?
A few emails, it’s called lobbying. A member of the public can goto parliament and insist there MP comes out. Maybe we should all do this.
I agree with the other commenter, it’s been two years almost since police arrested Ivor Caplin for meeting a 15 year old boy, it was recorded live and posted on Facebook, then widely reported globally actually.
This was a former MP, former chair of a local friends group and had access to parliament, plenty of visits recorded on record, access to lobby.
CPS are giving us two tier judicial decisions, how can they raid someone for lobbying, a women in the night, yet can’t seem to find the guts to charge Ivor Caplin, who has reportably left Brighton and moved to West Sussex, good decision as locals remember a nonces face, he is allowed to continue this grooming, and whatever else goes on.
We have a serious issue in the city around child sexual exploitation, as a victim myself 35 years ago, I find the whole logic here quite horrifying.
I wonder if Brighton and Hove News could post a follow up about this case too, it’s a public interest and safety issue, You are all parents. Are you not horrified?
We really need to clean up politics.
Much as I understand your frustration and I empathise with a great deal of what you say, there is no evidence of “two-tier judicial decisions” especially not by the CPS. Do not fall foul of the propaganda campaign which only seeks to deflect from inadequacies of previous governments and lack of intent.
Whatever happened to Peter Kyle? He’s gone from, slick, likeable and swarve with a support base who couldn’t do enough for him to an absolute embarassment, who struggles to find canvassers. This is not a CPS blunder. This is a Peter Kyle blunder. Big time. Something is seriously wrong with the guy to be having innocent residents arrested just because they annoyed him and he may as well be shouting from the rooftops in doing this that he is unfit for public office. You are the weakest link. Goodbye.
Do you understand what the issue was here?