Ashfield councillor guilty of harassing neighbours in hot tub row

A councillor has been found guilty of harassing his neighbours after they accused him of holding meetings in his hot tub during a Covid lockdown.

Tom Hollis, deputy leader of Ashfield District Council in Nottinghamshire, had denied two counts of harassment without violence.

Nottingham Magistrates' Court heard Hollis made up a false knife threat and called his neighbour a "paedophile".

The district judge said his behaviour in May 2020 amounted to harassment.

The court heard the row between the 28-year-old and his neighbours Shannon Jones-Golding and her husband Luke Golding began when Ms Jones-Golding rang police to ask if he was breaching Covid restrictions by holding meetings in his hot tub.

This led to an angry confrontation with Hollis who threatened to report her to police himself for "harassing a key worker".

Two weeks later another row broke out when Hollis accused the couple of breaching Covid rules when Mr Golding's father visited their back garden to mend a bicycle.

The court heard this argument led to Hollis branding the husband a "paedophile" before calling 999 to report being threatened with a large carving knife.

District Judge Leo Pyle said Hollis calling his next-door neighbour Luke Golding a "paedophile" was "deplorable" with no basis or evidence to back it up.

The judge found the claim his neighbour had threatened him with a knife was an "entirely false accusation".

The 999 call played in court featured Hollis "screaming" that he was being threatened with a "one-and-a-half-foot carving knife".

But video footage did not corroborate these claims, the court heard.

"It could be called pathetic, but it's far more than that," Mr Pyle said.

"If not for the footage taken by Shannon Jones-Golding, her husband could have been taken away in handcuffs."

He was also convicted of a second harassment charge for sending Ms Jones-Golding a threatening letter on council-headed paper.

Mr Pyle said this "caused alarm and distress" and was "oppressive".

However, Mr Pyle also found Hollis did not hold council meetings in his hot tub and used his home for work during the Covid pandemic.

He told Hollis he will be sentenced on 13 October.

Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].