Ipswich: Christopher Massey sentenced for Sadiq Khan calls

Christopher Massey, 53 and of Cecil Road, appeared at Suffolk Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, facing two counts of sending communication which threatened death or serious harm.

On Saturday, February 24, Massey is said to have twice called the Suffolk police control room and made threats against Sadiq Khan. Charges were brought against him under the new Online Safety Act 2023.

Massey pleaded guilty to these offences in February and has now been given a 12-week sentence, suspended for one year. 

He has to also pay the court a £145 fine, which would be taken out of his benefits. 

In the first phone call, the 53-year-old said, "Keep flying the rainbow mate," and went on to call them hippie flags. 

He further made physical threats towards the police officer. 

In the second call, Massey said he had heard that Sadiq Khan could "get a bullet to the back of his head" if he kept upsetting "the English".

At the time of his arrest, it was also said that Massey had repeatedly called the London Mayor a racial slur. 

The phone calls took place after controversial remarks made about London Mayor Sadiq Khan by Ashfield MP Lee Anderson. Image: PA (Image: PA)Christopher Massey appeared once more at Suffolk Magistrates' Court. (Image: Newsquest)

Massey was carrying out community service during the time the call was made, and had previously been convicted of racial hate crimes in 2019. 

Representing Mr Massey was Dave Allan who said that Mayor Khan was not the victim of the comments made by Massey, instead said it was the police officer who answered the call. 

For a mitigation plea, they said that the 53-year-old had not been racist and homophobic but instead said that "he heard" that Sadiq Khan could be shot. 

The court heard that Massey has a history of alcoholic abuse, and he made these comments because he was drunk and "rehashing the nonsense he has heard from Lee Anderson and other politicians”.

These calls were made in the wake of widely criticised remarks made by Ashfield MP Lee Anderson during a GB News Broadcast the previous day.

In the broadcast, Mr Anderson, formerly a Conservative MP who defected to the Reform UK (previously the Brexit Party) earlier this month, suggested that Mr Khan had “given our capital city away to his mates” and was controlled by “Islamists”.

Mr Anderson, who was also a presenter on GB News, was suspended for these remarks.

The presiding magistrate Colin Reeves said that the comments made by Massey were “clearly racist and homophobic” which would give the defendant a sentence of 18 weeks.

They believe that he is motivated to change, and the guilty plea reduced the sentence to 12 weeks, which would be suspended for a year.

In that year Massey is to ensure that he does not call 999 other than in cases of emergencies and that he works to reduce his alcohol consumption with Turning Point.