A local elections candidate in Swansea is being offered support from the police after she claims dead rats have been thrown into her garden and her dogs have been poisoned during the campaign.
Louise Thomas, 54, who is standing for the Conservatives in Mayals, claims to have been abused in the street, called at 3am and branded “a b***h”, and followed to work.
The former policewoman and mum-of-two said she was having to have police officers check on her and her property. A south Wales Police spokesperson confirmed they had a support package in place for Mrs Thomas. You can read more stories about Mumbles here.
Read more: Mumbles restaurant keeps 'black book' of no-shows and won't let them back without a good excuse
Swansea-born Mrs Thomas said: “I’ve had dead rats thrown in my garden four times. I’ve been called a liar on the neighbourhood app and there’s nasty stuff being written about me online. I’ve had threats on my phone and have been getting people phoning me at 3am calling me a b***h.
“My dogs have been poisoned, one of them, my Labrador, ended up with diarrhoea and sickness and ended up being ill for three days. Twice people have put flashing lights into my son’s room for 20 minutes. One person walked behind my house and was stopped by the police. He claimed he was having a cigarette, names were taken. I have started taking a log."
She added: “I was followed to work twice - one was by a guy on a moped. I called it into the beat officer when I got to work. There were two sets of roundabouts and he followed me and he followed me to a trading estate. I quickly reversed and he followed me again. It’s that psychological thing that they want you to know that you are being followed - it’s a tactic used to frighten people.
"Someone took a photo of me right in front of me at the beach. I’ve had harassment via messenger saying that I had shouted abuse at a young girl that day, when I hadn’t left my house and police are now investigating.”
She described it as the worst election campaign possible. “It’s awful. It needs to be a fair playing field and I have had an onslaught of abuse. It’s possibly the worst campaign, it’s been an uphill struggle. It’s looking personal and muddy.” She said that due to the nature of the abuse she did not go anywhere on her own. “I do not take my dogs to isolated places anymore. I do not go anywhere at night.”
She said she took the step of standing down from Mumbles Community Council due to funding issues over the area's skate park.
She claimed Swansea Liberal Democrats leader Chris Holley was looking into what had happened to her recently. Mr Holley said he did not believe such behaviour should be tolerated, adding: “She phoned me and asked me as a former leader of the opposition for advice. It seems to me it’s got out of hand - we should not be engaging in personal abuse. There’s one person in Aberystwyth who is stepping down because of the abuse.
“It’s being done by individuals with grievances and it might be something to do with the skate park. The candidates need to come out and say it must stop. She has taken a lot of abuse from particular people. I feel sorry for her and the abuse she has taken- it’s not good at all. It’s surprising but not unexpected - I have had a broken window and boards damaged. All the local parties should say it’s not good enough, we are not here for that.”
Labour leader Rob Stewart has also called on people to be respectful towards other candidates during the course of the election. You can read more about that here and you can get more Swansea stories with our newsletter.
Local policing inspector Judith Martin said: “We take all reports of this nature very seriously and have met the complainant. A support package has been put in place by the Neighbourhood Policing Team. If anyone has any information concerning these allegations, they are urged to contact us quoting reference 243 of March 5 th .”
The other candidates standing in Mayals are Pam Erasmus for Labour, Chris Evans for the Green Party and Daniel David Guttery for the Lib Dems.
