A CONSERVATIVE MP has been found guilty on three accounts relating a road accident last year.
Jamie Wallis was found guilty of failing to stop, failing to report a road traffic collision and leaving a vehicle in a dangerous position after a late-night crash on Church Road, Llanblethian, South Wales, on November 28 last year.
The MP for Bridgend was found not guilty of driving without due care and attention by District Judge Tan Ikram at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
Wallis, who came out as the UK's first openly transgender MP in March this year, denied the charges.
He claimed he crashed after swerving to avoid hitting a cat and left the scene out of fear he would be “raped, killed or kidnapped” due to post-traumatic stress disorder which he developed after being raped in September.
Prosecutor Carina Hughes said residents Adrian Watson and Natalie Webb were having a gathering when just after 1am they heard a “very loud bang, significantly louder than a domestic firework”.
Webb said he went outside and saw amber flashing lights and that a Mercedes E-Class saloon had crashed into the lamppost.
Watson said he looked inside the car and saw “a white male wearing a white long-sleeve top which was tight to the body, a black leather PVC mini-skirt, tights, dark shoes with a high heel and a pearl necklace”.
When he asked Wallis if he was okay, Watson said the male said: “I’m sorting it. I’m sorting it.”
Watson said he was going to call the police and that Wallis began walking away from the scene.
He followed him and witnessed him make two phone calls, and during one he claimed he was being “accosted”.
He was then picked up by his father in a Land Rover Discovery.
Police Sergeant Gareth Handy said that when he attended Wallis’ family home address, which he described as a “mansion” and “absolutely colossal”, he forced entry into the property out of concern for the MP.
Handy said Wallis was eventually found in one of the rooms of the house and when he got to the room he said: “I saw Jamie had make-up on his face.”
When police searched his flat at the property, they found a “blonde wig” on a table, the court heard.
Pc Louis Hall found Wallis in a bedroom within the house asleep and said: “He appeared to be wearing make-up. His eyelids were dark, his lips were red and his cheeks were bronzed, and he had red nail polish on his toes.”
Wallis was found naked in the living area of a flat and given a modesty blanket until clothing could be found.
The black leather skirt and pearl necklace were found next to the bed and were seized by police.
He was arrested at 7.21am.
Taking to the stand, Wallis said the day before the crash he was at home “wearing clothes I felt most comfortable in, which I often do when I’m alone, which are women’s clothes”.
Peter Rouch QC, defending, asked Wallis: “How long have you felt like this?”
Wallis replied: “Since I was a small child.”
Wallis said he would describe himself as transgender.
