A protester who pursued Sir Gavin Williamson for 20 minutes through the streets of London and dubbed him a "dead man walking" has been convicted of stalking.
Simon Parry, 45, harassed and intimidated the senior Conservative politician in two incidents, on May 24 and June 14, when Sir Gavin was walking through Whitehall.
He suggested he could detain Sir Gavin, flashed a badge attached to a wallet which read “law enforcement officer”, and told the former minister: “I could arrest you right now if I wanted to.”
At a trial at City of London magistrates court, the former cabinet minister said he "felt incredibly threatened" during the incidents, which have caused him to change the routes he now walks through London.
Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram found Parry guilty of stalking, saying: “I am satisfied that those two occasions taken collectively amount to harassment of Sir Gavin.
“The defendant thinks there is humour in relation to what he does. He uploads it onto social media. Objectively he ought to have known the course of conduct amounted to harassment. I am sure of that.”
The judge dismissed a second charge of impersonating a police officer, saying the evidence presented to support the charge was "poor".
Parry filming himself during the two incidents when he followed Sir Gavin, and in the second incident he is heard claiming the Met Police have “given us the green light to make a citizen’s arrest on an MP”.
He voiced anti-vaccine views, questioned the need for pandemic lockdowns, and spoke about a series of conspiracy theories involving Bill Gates and the World Economic Forum.
Giving evidence, Sir Gavin said: “I heard quite a bit of it – I could sense there were quite a lot of extreme views being expressed all the way, continually hostile views being directed at yourself.
“I felt quite concerned there was an individual that wasn’t being totally rational and was being very aggressive towards myself as I went.”
Sir Gavin said he was on the phone to a constituent who had just lost her dog at the time, and he considered stopping to talk to Parry but did not want to “give him a reaction”.
“The persistence in terms of following me was quite disturbing at this time”, he said.
“It was quite obvious this individual was quite hostile to myself.
“When it happens to you, it feels a lot longer period of time – it felt increasingly threatening.”
Prosecutor Luke Staton said Parry started following Sir Gavin in Whitehall on June 14, and continued walking with him to an area near to Tottenham Court Road.
“He followed the complainant for just over 20 minutes in the street”, said the prosecutor.
“The complainant changed his route and stopped on occasions in attempts to avoid the defendant.”
On the recording, Parry is heard saying “these MPs are going to start getting arrested soon. They know they are going to get arrested soon, they can’t get away with this for much longer”.
He said politicians “have the blood of our children on their hands” and added: “That’s a dead man walking”.
“At one stage he said ‘I’ll flash him the badge’. It appeared to the complainant to be a police warrant card. It was a badge attached to a wallet which read ‘law enforcement officer’.”
Sir Gavin said it initially looked like a genuine warrant card, but he noticed differences from the usual Met Police badges he has seen.
"It was getting to feel kind of more scary", he said. "I could hear consistent references to 'police, police, police' and he was saying he was about to arrest me.
"He was trying to give me the clear view that this was a warrant card being shown to me.
"I was getting increasingly worried."
Sir Gavin has been MP for South Staffordshire since 2010 and served in cabinet as defence secretary before becoming education secretary under Boris Johnson in 2019.
In the first incident, on May 24, Sir Gavin said he was heading to Parliament and has just passed a group of protesters when he noticed a person walking in “close proximity” to him. He then realised he was being filmed and “didn’t want to engage in that conversation”, he said.
“It at no stage felt like a normal conversation”, he said. “I took the decision to get on to the Parliamentary estate as quickly as possible.”
Asked how the incident made him feel, he said: “It was someone who was quite angry towards you, someone not really wanting to have a discussion, but rather express their views or anger or dissatisfaction at you.
“It felt very unpleasant. It’s not really what you want.
“As an MP, you get a lot of people approaching you all the time. People approach you with concerns and wanting to discuss them. It’s done in a very different manner to that.”
Parry, of no fixed address, was accompanied to court by supporters including Piers Corbyn, whose address was originally given to the court as a contact.
He argued his conduct did not amount to stalking and he is an “investigative reporter” who was trying to interview the politician.
Parry told police the badge was intended for use in a citizen’s arrest, rather than to impersonate law enforcement.
He is due to be sentenced on November 16.
