Friday, March 30, 2007
Dirty tricks
The paper tells us that an anonymously-produced leaflet, sent to AMs, councillors and journalists, makes unfounded personal allegations about Chris Smart, who is second on the party's regional list in South Wales West:
The leaflet claims it will be distributed to nearly 400,000 voters in the region.
A spokesman for the Welsh Conservative Party said, "We are referring a malicious, anonymous leaflet regarding one of our candidates to South Wales Police and the Electoral Commission, and are asking them to investigate the source of its defamatory content."
Mr Smart, a broadcaster who runs a Bridgend news agency, said he was appalled that details of a court appearance he made 34 years ago had been distorted.
The leaflet suggests Mr Smart was investigated for alleged offences involving young boys.
In fact, he was bound over to keep the peace after a series of bizarre incidents where he was said to have posed as a school inspector.
Port Talbot magistrates were told Mr Smart stopped children in streets at Margam, Aberavon and Sandfields and asked them why they were not in school.
In each instance the children had full authority to be out of school.
On one occasion Mr Smart was alleged to have made children bend and touch their toes and threatened to spank them with a cricket bat.
Mr Smart, who at the time was 22, was bound over in the sum of £100 to keep the peace for two years.
In December 1998 similar false allegations were made in anonymous letters in the run-up to the first Assembly election, when Mr Smart was also a candidate.
Yesterday he said, "The leaflet contains a series of lies and bears no relation to what actually happened. I am appalled that this minor matter has been resurrected after all these years.
"I was over-zealous at the time and I don't deny that.
"But there was absolutely no sexual element in what I did - I was motivated purely by a desire to stop truancy."
It is an offence to distribute untruthful or anonymous leaflets during an election campaign.
Everybody was shocked at the contents of this publication. This sort of tactic has no place in an election campaign, it undermines the whole political process. I am happy therefore, to help by putting the record straight for anybody who has received the leaflet but may not have seen the newspaper report.
Let us be clear - it is an offence to distribute anonymous printed material *at any time*. The anonymous defamer obviously thought he was being clever by sending his stuff out before the election campaign started, but he or she is in for a surprise if the police catch up with him or her.
: 6:13 PMSaid person/people may of course now realise their position and desist.
: 12:51 PM : 3:55 AM : 11:55 AM<< Home
