A former secondary school teacher has been jailed for 20 weeks after sending racist emails threatening to kill Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch. Kieran Kyle, 43, from Gillingham in Kent, was sentenced at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Monday 9 November.

Kyle sent three emails to Mrs Badenoch's parliamentary address on 2 May this year, using racist language and threatening her life. He falsely claimed to have been a member of the IRA. In one message, he wrote that when he was in the IRA he would have shot her dead.

Emails sent after Bloody Sunday video row

The messages arrived on the same day Mrs Badenoch apologised after footage from Bloody Sunday was mistakenly included in a social media video criticising Labour's Northern Ireland legacy legislation. In two of the emails, Kyle made racist references and wrote that he was ex-IRA, warning that her references to Bloody Sunday would give her trouble. Mrs Badenoch has said she did not personally sign off the video, which criticised a parliamentary Bill on legacy issues in Northern Ireland.

Days earlier, on 29 April, Kyle had emailed Mrs Badenoch's husband, Hamish, using a racist term and telling him to put a leash on her. Prosecutor Ben Holt told the court that the couple had been left distressed and upset, particularly by the racist language and threats of violence.

Guilty plea and restraining order

Kyle had pleaded guilty in September to two counts of sending communications of an indecent or offensive nature. In sentencing, the court heard that Mrs Badenoch had been profoundly affected by the offences, which caused her stress and alarm for her family, while her husband found the racial element of the messages particularly distressing.

Alongside the 20-week prison sentence, the court imposed a five-year restraining order banning Kyle from any contact with Mrs Badenoch, her husband or her parliamentary office. Mrs Badenoch, 46, the MP for North West Essex, became the first Black woman to lead one of Britain's major political parties when she won the Conservative leadership contest two years ago.

The case underlines the courts' approach to threats against elected representatives. The sentencing judge said that using email to intimidate or abuse public figures undermines the democratic process, and that people who target them because of their race or religion should expect deterrent sentences.