VICTIMS of the Westminster "honeytrap" scandal, including MPs, have had their identities revealed to each other in an email from Scotland Yard, it has been reported.
The Met Police is investigating flirtatious messages being sent by someone calling themselves "Charlie" or "Abi" to as many as 20 people including MPs, staffers and political journalists.
A detective sent potential victims an email updating them on the case, but inadvertently copied in all of those involved, revealing to the recipients their names and email addresses.
The email was sent on Friday afternoon to update 18 people that the date a suspect would have to answer bail was being changed because of a fire at Charing Cross police station.
However, the sender, a detective sergeant in the Met’s Diplomatic and Parliamentary Protection unit, included the recipients’ names in the CC section of the email, rather than BCC, which would have concealed their identities.
The Met Police has referred itself to the Information Commissioner after accidentally sending the email.
Officers are also to “personally apologise” to those affected.
In a statement, a Met spokesperson said: “An email relating to an ongoing investigation was sent in error today.
“We recognise the impact on those involved and apologise sincerely for any distress.
“A referral to the Information Commissioner’s Office has been made and we await advice on next steps.
“Officers will be reaching out to those impacted to personally apologise and provide reassurance.”
Five current MPs, five former MPs and a Westminster aide were contacted on a mixture of parliamentary and personal email addresses, as well as seven others.
One of those affected said it felt "disheartening to see my personal details so carelessly given out and uneasy to know that this will have an impact with both my personal and professional life".
Earlier this year it emerged MPs had received explicit images and flirtatious messages from anonymous WhatsApp accounts in an apparent “honeytrap” after MP William Wragg was coerced into sharing their numbers.
Wragg resigned from the Conservative parliamentary party in April after he admitted giving out fellow politicians' phone numbers to the suspected perpetrator of the sexting scam. He said he felt threatened and pressured by the "catfish" after exchanging explicit photos with them.
Wragg divulged the numbers to what he thought was a real person on a dating app, amid fears that the intimate images of himself would be leaked.
In June, police arrested a man in his mid-20s on suspicion of harassment and offences under the Online Safety Act.
The Labour party member was suspended after the party was notified of their arrest in connection with the scandal.
The messages victims received would include details of the MPs and staffers’ careers and campaigns they had worked on to build rapport with them.
They would then descend into sexually explicit messaging, with “Abi” or “Charlie” sending graphic images to victims and asking for nude photographs in return.
It is understood that two of the individuals targeted responded by sending an explicit image of themselves, with the attack described as an attempt at spear phishing, which involves scammers pretending to be trusted senders in order to steal personal or sensitive information.
