Councillor suspended for sending sexual messages

A former deputy council leader has been suspended for four months for sending sexual messages to a vulnerable resident.

Bernie Attridge was said to have used his position as a councillor to "obtain an improper personal advantage".

He was also sanctioned for acting in a bullying and disrespectful way towards officers and for "bringing his office into disrepute".

The councillor has apologised in an email to the panel and said he is "begging" them not to disqualify him.

The councillor was contacted in March 2021 by a woman seeking help to find a council house for her granddaughter.

The woman was receiving support from social services at the time after being identified as a vulnerable adult.

Messages were exchanged between the complainant, named only in the panel’s report as “Ms M”, between July 2021 and May 2022, in which the councillor made a number of sexual comments.

Mr Attridge apologised, blaming his misconduct on a traumatic childhood event and mental and physical ill health.

He was suspended from Flintshire council and Connah’s Quay town council for four months.

In a report, the panel said: “Once the respondent had offered to assist Ms M with her granddaughter’s housing issue, the nature of his messaging became more sexualised, and the messages strongly indicated that he was courting some sort of sexual relationship or favour in return.

“In interview, he accepted that he had ‘wanted a woman’ and the power imbalance demonstrated that he had therefore attempted to use his position as a councillor improperly in order to obtain an improper personal advantage.”

Other alleged code of conduct breaches by the councillor, including that he failed to declare a personal interest in Ms M’s case, were not proven to be true.

Mr Attridge said he had recently spent time in hospital for abdominal surgery and was permanently disabled.

He said his breaches of the code were a direct result of a nervous breakdown, which he described as “the lowest point in my life”.