‘Cult’ members who ‘wanted to construct own legal system’ jailed for coroner kidnap plot

Published

8 months ago

October 28, 2024

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Four ‘cult’ members have been jailed for plotting to kidnap and falsely imprison a coroner.

Mark Christopher, 59, and Matthew Martin, 47, both from east London, along with married couple Shiza Harper, 45, and Sean Harper, 38, both from South Benfleet, Essex, were convicted in July.

During their trial, Chelmsford Crown Court heard that Lincoln Brookes, senior coroner for Essex, received a series of “very bizarre” letters between March and September 2022, followed by emails stating that “corporal punishment may be administered”.

Mr Brookes described the messages, which claimed to be warrants “for seizure of goods and persons”, as “troubling” and “upsetting”. In one, he said he was accused of “detrimental necromancy”.

He referred the letters to Essex County Council’s fraud detection department.

The judge Mr Justice Goss said Mr Brookes was told it was “not a known scam and it was decided to keep an eye on it”.

In March 2023, Christopher sent “further malicious communications” to Mr Brookes.

The judge said that Christopher also hosted an online rally on 17 April 2023 where he “foreshadowed the closing of the coroner’s court and the Southend County Court and the administration of corporal punishment if need be”.

Mr Justice Goss continued: “You told those attending to remember that they were doing this because their country is going to be overtaken by Nazis.”

He added that Christopher warned that the “Nazis” would “kick your door down and mutilate your children for surgery” and those attending therefore had to “whack them to death”.

“The clip ended with you saying you were going to shut down the coroner’s court, administering corporal punishment if need be,” the judge said.

He told the four defendants that they “all attended that rally”.

Three days later the defendants travelled to the coroner’s court in Chelmsford with handcuffs in search of Mr Brookes, but he was not there at the time, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.

The defendants had entered a room where another coroner, Michelle Brown, was conducting documentary inquests, before demanding to know where Mr Brookes was and said they were shutting down the court.

She said that the leader, Christopher, “kept demanding that I find and get Mr Brookes”.

Judge calls Christopher ‘manipulative’

During summing up in the case, Mr Justice Goss told jurors that the defendants were “members of a group called the Federal Postal Court, or Court of the People”.

He added on the day of the attempted kidnap, the four defendants had driven to the court in two vehicles “displaying the emblem of your organisation”.

In sentencing remarks, the judge described Christopher as “manipulative and dishonest”. He said Christopher was the “self-appointed leader” with the title “chief judge of England and all dominions”.

He added Martin was a “sheriff and a coroner”, Sean Harper a “sheriff” and his wife Shiza Harper a “postal inspector and auditor”.

All three had been “qualified” by Christopher, the court heard.

Coroner ‘regularly has nightmares about incident’

In a victim impact statement read out in court, Mr Brookes said on Monday: “I regularly have nightmares about the incident and the suspects attending my home.”

Mr Brookes said he has had “initial trauma therapy” and is now “hyper vigilant about the safety of my family and myself”.

He said he had been driving to the court, having accompanied a family member to a hospital appointment that morning, when he received a call about what had happened and he turned around.

Mr Brookes said he was warned not to come to the building and was told “these are the people from the letter – they’re coming to get you”.

He said he suffers “flashbacks of the journey home” and at the time “was wondering if the cars around me were following me or trying to beat me to my house”.

Detective Chief Inspector Nathan Hutchinson from Essex Police said: “The ideologies of this group were concerning and they genuinely believed that they had the power to construct their own legal system, threaten others and were above English law.”

He praised staff at the coroner’s court for acting “calmly and rationally during an intimidating and traumatising ordeal”.

In July this year, Martin told Chelmsford Crown Court he was a “man of honour”.

He said: “What I do for a living, what I do every day when I wake up, I deal with state child trafficking.”

He added that it was “nothing to do with terrorism or cult, it’s strictly facts”.

Christopher, of Forest Gate, east London, Martin, of Plaistow, east London, Shiza Harper and Sean Harper, both of South Benfleet, Essex, all denied conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to commit false imprisonment, but were all found guilty on both counts following a two-week trial.

Christopher, who was also found guilty of sending threatening letters to Mr Brookes, with intent to cause distress or anxiety, was sentenced to seven years for the conspiracy to kidnap and 18 months for malicious intent, to run concurrently.

The judge said Christopher “lay at the very heart of these offences”.

He said the other three defendants “were prepared to commit offences while doing his bidding”, and jailed them for 30 months each.

All four were also ordered each to pay a £228 surcharge and subjected each to a restraining order, barring them from entering any courthouse in England and Wales without a prior appointment and blocking them from contacting Mr Brookes or Ms Brown.

UK

Post Office scandal: Daughter has had ‘panic attacks’ since mum was accused of stealing

Published

18 mins ago

July 8, 2025

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Post Office scandal: Daughter has had 'panic attacks' since mum was accused of stealing

The daughter of a Post Office victim has told Sky News she suffered “dark thoughts of suicide” in the years after her mother was accused of stealing.

Kate Burrows was 14 years old when her mother, Elaine Hood, was prosecuted and subsequently convicted in 2003.

The first public inquiry report on the Post Office – examining redress and the “human impact” of the scandal – is due to be published today.

“I’ve suffered with panic attacks from about 14, 15 years old, and I still have them to this day,” Kate said.

“I’ve been in and out of therapy for what feels like most of my adult life and it absolutely categorically goes back to [what happened].”

Kate, along with others, helped set up the charity Lost Chances, supporting the children of Post Office victims. She hopes the inquiry will recognise their suffering.

“It’s important that our voices are heard,” she said. “Not only within the report, but in law actually.

“And then maybe that would be a deterrent for any future cover-ups, that it’s not just the one person it’s the whole family [affected].”

Her sister, Rebecca Richards, who was 18 when their mother was accused, described how an eating disorder “escalated” after what happened.

“When my mum was going through everything, my only control of that situation was what food I put in my body,” she said.

She also said that seeing her mother at court when she was convicted, would “stay with me forever”.

“The two investigators were sat in front of my dad and I, sniggering and saying ‘we’ve got this one’.

“To watch my mum in the docks handcuffed to a guard… not knowing if she was going to be coming home… that is the most standout memory for me.”

The sisters are hoping the inquiry findings will push Fujitsu into fulfilling a promise they made nearly a year ago – to try and help the children of victims.

Last summer, Kate met with the European boss of the company, Paul Patterson, who said he would look at ways they could support Lost Chances.

Despite appearing at the inquiry in November last year and saying he would not “stay silent” on the issue, Kate said there has been little movement in terms of support.

“It’s very much a line of ‘we’re going to wait until the end of the inquiry report to decide’,” she said.

“But Mr Patterson met us in person, looked us in the eye, and we shared the most deeply personal stories and he said we will do something… they need to make a difference.”

Fujitsu, who developed the faulty Horizon software, has said it is in discussions with the government regarding a contribution to compensation.

The inquiry will delve in detail into redress schemes, of which four exist, three controlled by the government and one by the Post Office.

Victims of the scandal say they are hoping Sir Wyn Williams, chair of the inquiry, will recommend that the government and the Post Office are removed from the redress schemes as thousands still wait for full and fair redress.

A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said they were “grateful” for the inquiry’s work, describing “the immeasurable suffering” victims endured and saying the government has “quadrupled the total amount paid to affected postmasters”, with more than £1bn having now been paid to thousands of claimants.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK

UK

Drones are sending ‘overwhelming amounts’ of drugs into prisons – and could help inmates escape, report warns

Published

7 hours ago

July 7, 2025

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Drones are sending 'overwhelming amounts' of drugs into prisons - and could help inmates escape, report warns

Sophisticated drones sending “overwhelming amounts” of drugs and weapons into prisons represent a threat to national security, according to an annual inspection report by the prisons watchdog.

HMP chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor has warned criminal gangs are targeting jails and making huge profits selling contraband to a “vulnerable and bored” prison population.

The watchdog boss reiterated his concerns about drones making regular deliveries to two Category A jails, HMP Long Lartin and HMP Manchester, which hold “the most dangerous men in the country”, including terrorists.

Mr Taylor said “the police and prison service have in effect ceded the airspace” above these two high-security prisons, which he said was compromising the “safety of staff, prisoners, and ultimately that of the public”.

“The possibility now whereby we’re seeing packages of up to 10kg brought in by serious organised crime means that in some prisons there is now a menu of drugs available,” he said. “Anything from steroids to cannabis, to things like spice and cocaine.”

“Drone technology is moving fast… there is a level of risk that’s posed by drones that I think is different from what we’ve seen in the past,” warned the chief inspector – who also said there’s a “theoretical risk” that a prisoner could escape by being carried out of a jail by a drone.

He urged the prison service to “get a grip” of the issue, stating: “We’d like to see the government, security services, coming together, using technology, using intelligence, so that this risk doesn’t materialise.”

The report makes clear that physical security – such as netting, windows and CCTV – is “inadequate” in some jails, including Manchester, with “inexperienced staff” being “manipulated”.

Mr Taylor said there are “basic” measures which could help prevent the use of drones, such as mowing the lawn, “so we don’t get packages disguised as things like astro turf”.

Responding to the report, the Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT) said: “The ready access to drugs is deeply worrying and is undermining efforts to create places of rehabilitation.”

Mr Taylor’s report found that overcrowding continues to be what he described as a “major issue”, with increasing levels of violence against staff and between prisoners, combined with a lack of purposeful activity.

Some 20% of adult men responding to prisoner surveys said they felt unsafe at the time of the inspection, increasing to 30% in the high security estate.

Andrea Coomber, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “This report is a checklist for all the reasons the government must prioritise reducing prison numbers, urgently.

“Sentencing reform is essential, and sensible steps to reduce the prison population would save lives.”

The report comes after the government pledged to accept most of the recommendations proposed in the independent review of sentencing policy, with the aim of freeing up around 9,500 spaces.

Those measures won’t come into effect until spring 2026.

Prisons Minister Lord Timpson said Mr Taylor’s findings show “the scale of the crisis” the government “inherited”, with “prisons dangerously full, rife with drugs and violence”.

He said: “After just 500 prison places added in 14 years, we’re building 14,000 extra – with 2,400 already delivered – and reforming sentencing to ensure we never run out of space again.

“We’re also investing £40m to bolster security, alongside stepping up cooperation with police to combat drones and stop the contraband which fuels violence behind bars.”