Hoaxer guilty after package to PM spotted in east London

Convicted… hoaxer Christopher Doyle who sent fake noxious package to prime minister. Picture: Met Police

He tried sending a fake ‘noxious’ package to Downing Street in April 2018 which was intercepted by sharp-eyed staff at the Royal Mail’s east London sorting office.

Explosives experts from Scotland Yard arrived at the sorting office to analyse the powder which they identified as harmless citric acid.

Detectives from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command tracked the sender, 54-year-old Christopher Doyle, and arrested him at his home at Widnes, in Cheshire, two weeks later.

Officers searching his house then discovered indecent images of children on his home computer.

Doyle was arrested on bail and eventually appeared in court last February at Liverpool where he denied the hoaxes to the prime minister, but admitted making the indecent images.

He was further bailed to appear in court on Tuesday for the noxious substance hoax, under the 2001 Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act, and found guilty today after a four-day trial, due for sentence on September 3.

Commander Richard Smith, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “We treat extremely seriously hoaxes and any attempts to make MPs and elected officials fear for their safety, to bring those responsible to justice.”

The Met’s team specialising in offences of threatening or intimidating MPs, their staff and families was set up after the 2016 murder of MP Jo Cox who was living with her young family on a houseboat at Hermitage Pier in Wapping.