Taunton MP Rebecca Pow feared stalker had sent anthrax

An MP feared her alleged stalker had sent her anthrax via letters from prison, a court was told.

Taunton Deane Conservative MP Rebecca Pow said she noticed white powder all over her hands as she sifted through the papers sent to her by Maurice Kirk in May 2019.

Ms Pow said she was "deeply worried, rushed to the kitchen sink and washed and washed" her hands.

Kirk, 76, of Westgate Street, Taunton, denies stalking.

The MP told Exeter Crown Court: "Once I spotted the white powder I dropped it like a hot potato. I was deeply worried, thinking why would somebody send me these papers and put white powder in there - is it malicious?"

Mr Kirk says it was toothpaste he used to seal the envelope.

Robin Shellard, prosecuting, told jurors the stalking started in May 2019 while Mr Kirk was in prison for an unconnected offence of breaching a harassment order against a doctor.

The court was told Kirk contacted Taunton Deane MP Rebecca Pow asking for help in suing the police over a prosecution in which he was cleared of fixing a machine-gun on a vintage plane after claiming it was a harmless piece of metal.

It is alleged the contact triggered a campaign of harassment, which also included visiting her house and posting a picture of a shotgun online.

When she was told he had been released from prison six months later, she said she felt physically sick, especially as her husband had died so she was coming home from work to an empty house.

In May 2020 she said she received another letter from Kirk at her home, delivered by hand and recognised the writing instantly.

She told the court she had opened it in the garden with her grown-up children, while wearing gardening gloves, and when they thought it was from Kirk they looked him up on social media.

They found a photo of him holding a machine gun and a video talking about visiting her house that day and saying he had "gone past plan B, plan C and plan D. Looks as if I have to move onto Plan E", she said.

"I could only think the worse about what plan E could be," Ms Pow told the court.

"When we saw that I literally did feel sick- it seemed absolutely sinister.

"I thought it is going to involve one of these guns. Is he going to take me at gunpoint to make a point to whoever he's trying to make a point to?

"It was terrifying, I just felt sick, I couldn't sleep, I was really worried," she said.

The trial continues.