New police hate mail probe after BBC investigation

Police have launched a new investigation after an ex-Liverpool councillor was convicted of what a judge called a "persistent, wicked and abusive" hate mail campaign.

Gerard Woodhouse, 62, was convicted in December of sending about 100 anonymous abusive letters to senior Liverpool City Council Labour figure Christine Banks between 2023 and 2025.

Now, a BBC North West investigation can reveal:

• Police and the Labour Party first received complaints that Woodhouse may have been behind poison pen letters over a decade ago, during his time on the council.

• The reopened case relates to letters received by a member of the public while Woodhouse was a serving councillor in 2022.

• A nursery school to which Woodhouse was appointed as a council-approved governor is facing calls to explain if it carried out proper criminal record checks on him.

Woodhouse, of Mayfield Close in Liverpool, was sentenced to a three-month community order for non-violent harassment of Banks, 75, after police found fingerprint evidence on one of the letters she had received.

He sent her dozens of anonymous cards and letters - sometimes up to five a day - that contained vile slurs and references to Banks' daughter, who had passed away.

His solicitor told the court he had mental health problems, had become fixated on Banks and that factionalism in the Labour Party in Liverpool had led him to believe he was being victimised.

The offences occurred after Woodhouse - who had been a high-profile anti-poverty campaigner and foodbank boss in the city - was de-selected by the Labour Party in late 2022.

But a BBC investigation had already established that other people had received anonymous, abusive letters that they believed Woodhouse to have been behind while he was an elected representative.

And in the following days, current council leader Liam Robinson revealed he had also received an anonymous letter and indicated he believed Woodhouse had sent it.

The BBC can now reveal one of the complaints to both Liverpool Labour Party whips and Merseyside Police about anonymous abuse came as early as 2014, by which time Woodhouse had been on the council for four years.

A community group identified Woodhouse as the potential source of the letter.

The Labour Party has not responded to questions about what, if any, action was taken.

Merseyside Police has also not been able to comment on the incident.

But following the earlier BBC investigation and Woodhouse's conviction, Merseyside Police reopened a shelved inquiry that had been launched a year before Woodhouse began targeting Banks.

The BBC has learned the complaint relates to a series of letters received by a member of the public in quick succession in 2022.

Merseyside Police said Woodhouse had been identified as a potential suspect in other crimes, but no evidence had been provided to the force.

It added the case was being reopened "following the conviction of Woodhouse due to a victim coming forward".

The BBC understands the complainant renewed their complaint to police having seen the BBC investigation, which included samples of handwriting from letters received by other alleged victims.

The complainant had not suspected Woodhouse until that point, the BBC understands.

It emerged during Woodhouse's sentencing that he had four criminal convictions relating to 15 offences, including an assault and a benefit fraud, before becoming a councillor in 2010.

Senior Labour figures in the city – including current council leader Robinson – have said they were not aware of his criminal past before he was selected. The broader regional Labour Party has not responded to questions about whether it was aware.

But the revelation has renewed concern over his appointment as a governor of Liverpool nursery school in 2018.

At the time, he was suspended from the Labour Party over abusive remarks he had been recorded making about his Labour ward colleague, Kay Davies.

But a proposal by Liberal Democrat Andrew Makinson to block his appointment to the Everton Day Nursery and Family Centre's board was defeated when the majority of the Labour group voted to back Woodhouse.

Under laws toughened up in 2016, enhanced criminal records checks that would have revealed any previous convictions were required on school and nursery governors by the time Woodhouse was appointed.

The BBC has asked the nursery if it carried out the legally required check.

It said: "Personal data relating to members of the governing body is destroyed when they leave office, and therefore we have no records relating to Gerard Woodhouse."

Makinson said the Labour Party needed to explain whether it knew of Woodhouse's convictions before it re-selected him as a candidate in both 2014 and 2018, and before local party members forced through his appointment to the nursery board.

He said it appeared Woodhouse had been behind an "industrial hate campaign" throughout his time on the council, and that "throughout that time Labour chose to ignore many red flags about his behaviour".

He added: "Liverpool Labour must come clean on if they knew about his criminal record when they selected him to become a councillor, and why he was protected when so many concerns had been raised about his conduct."

Makinson said he would be writing to the chief executive of the council urging an investigation be held into whether the nursery had completed the checks, and, if so, whether the authority was made aware of his convictions.

Woodhouse was also a governor of two other schools during his time on the council, but one was before enhanced criminal record checks became mandatory in 2016. The other, in the early 2020s, was after the point that spent convictions sustained more than 11 years previously were no longer included in the results.

The Labour Party – which de-selected Woodhouse as a candidate in 2022 – has not acknowledged, or responded to, any of the BBC's enquiries.

It has previously said it would "assist the police if needed".

Woodhouse has not responded to requests for comment.

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