A racist and homophobic man who made threatening phone calls suggesting Mayor of London Sadiq Khan was going to be shot in the head has been spared a jail sentence.
Christopher Massey, 52, launched into foul-mouthed rants at the Mayor and police officers during two drunken 999 calls to Suffolk Police.
In one, Massey remarked: “I hear Mayor Khan is going to get a bullet in the back of his f***ing skull in the next few weeks because he is p*ssing off the English.”
After his arrest, Massey made a series of racist remarks, including: “Khan is a P***, he shouldn’t be in this country.”
Amid a rant about being the “only Englishman in this area”, Massey made references to the “native people” and he also defended using the racist slur, suggesting it is an “abbreviation much like Brit”.
The calls happened on February 25, just a few hours after inflammatory remarks by former Conservative Party deputy chairman Lee Anderson aired on GB News, when he referred to “Islamists” and suggested Mr Khan has “given our capital city away to his mates”.
Massey’s own lawyer told Ipswich magistrates court on Thursday that the abusive phone calls to police were “rehashing nonsense probably heard from Lee Anderson or some other party”.
Massey, who lives in Ipswich, admitted two charges of sending a communication threatening death of serious harm, and was sentenced by magistrates to 12 weeks in prison suspended for a year.
He must attend alcohol treatment sessions over the next 12 months, and pay £299 in court costs and fees.
Reacting to the sentence, Massey said: “I’ve just got to stop drinking.”
The court heard Massey has 19 convictions on his record, covering 30 offences, including past jail terms for malicious communications.
In 2019 he aimed a homophobic slur at a police officer, and called another a “P*** loving c***” while threatening to hang him and his family.
He was also locked up for a 2017 bomb hoax and was described to the court as having a “prolific history of calling police”.
In the latest offences, Massey started the first call by asking the 999 operator: “Are you waving your lovely flag today?” followed by a reference to “hippy” and rainbow flags.
He then says: “I’ve got 30 kilos of Semtex up your arsehole”, before adding that it is a “hoax”.
Massey tells the operator he thinks the Met Police is “going against public opinion”.
The court heard Massey, who used his own phone number to call 999, was “heavily intoxicated” when police arrived to arrest him later that same night.
In his controversial broadcast last month that ultimately led to him quitting the Tories and joining Reform UK, Mr Anderson said: “I don’t actually believe that the Islamists have got control of our country, but what I do believe is they’ve got control of Khan, and they’ve got control of London.”
He refused to apologise and lost the Conservative Party whip as a consequence.
After The Standard broke the news of the criminal case, Mr Khan wrote that “blatant anti-Muslim hatred” has been “promoted and tolerated” within the Conservative Party.
He highlighted that cases of Muslims being physically and verbally abused have tripled in the last four months, and suggested anti-Muslim prejudice has become “a daily reality for many on social media”.
“Lee Anderson’s comments have only poured petrol on the fire of this hatred”, he added.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called Mr Anderson’s words “wrong”, while Conservative mayoral candidate Susan Hall condemned the abuse sometimes directed at Mr Khan.
Suggesting focus should be on his policies, she wrote: “I may be one of Mayor Sadiq Khan’s biggest critics, but I also see the monstrous abuse he gets as one of the country’s most prominent Muslim politicians.
“No one should have to put up with that, and I wholly condemn anyone who does it, or fuels it. His faith is one of his positive characteristics, not something to be suspicious of.”
