Victim: Oakley is 'deranged'

4:10pm Friday 8th August 2008

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The victims of “deranged” Ian Oakley’s hate campaign have welcomed his admission of guilt and spoken of the “relief” that he has finally been brought to justice.

After the former Conservative hopeful pleaded guilty to orchestrating three years of sustained intimidation and causing more than 60 acts of criminal damage, further amazing revelations of his sordid crusade have since come to light.

It has emerged Liberal Democrats across the town had been trained by forensic officers on how to protect evidence.

Several of Oakley’s intended victims, including the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Sal Brinton, were trained by officers in how to look after criminal evidence, such was the amount of hate mail they were receiving.

Some have even been opening their post with plastic gloves every morning just in case they accidentally ruined a vital piece of evidence.

The extent of the sexual and often child-like abuse Oakley levelled at his opponents is also becoming clearer.

In the months leading up to the launch of Operation Tuition - the investigation headed by Hertfordshire Constabulary’s major crime task force - Lib Dems across the town kept a dossier of the abuse they were receiving.

Between April and November 2006, countless incidents were logged when disgusting words, far too explicit for publication, were scrawled onto people’s cars, homes and even recycling boxes.

Many of the obscenities were of a sexual nature. Others were racist.

Hundreds of fake Liberal Democrat leaflets were also distributed across Watford in the run-up to elections in an attempt to directly affect the results.

Ms Brinton, as well as councillors across Watford and Three Rivers, also received pornographic images in the post, while others suffered petty acts of vandalism, such as having rubbish scattered across gardens.

The log recorded that almost 20 cars had been vandalised in the six month period, while obscenities were daubed on numerous peoples’ homes.

Liberal Democrat poster-boards and campaign literature were also frequently ripped down and vandalised.

The dossier ended when the matter was taken up by the police.

Speaking while on a family holiday in the Scottish Highlands, Sal Brinton, the focus of so much of Ian Oakley efforts, said she was “relieved” he had admitted his guilt.

Ms Brinton described the distress his acts of vandalism had caused was “absolutely disgusting”. However, she said there was a more sinister plot to Oakley’s vile campaign.

She said: “The fact that he used personal attacks on individuals was despicable.

“But the greater campaign, which I think in the one that worried myself and my colleagues, is that he believed he could gain electoral success by running this campaign.”

Ms Brinton paid tribute to her family and campaign team for the support she received.

She said she was “very grateful” to the police for halting his campaign.

Councillor Mark Watkin was one of a number of local Liberal Democrats who watched from the public gallery as Oakley entered his guilty pleas on Tuesday morning.

Councillor Watkin was the victim of poison-pen letters sent out by Oakley.

The letters, many of which were read by Councillor Watkin’s wife and daughters, alleged he was a paedophile.

Councillor Watkin said reliving the case in court had left him “shattered”.

The Nascot councillor said: “Personally I am so pleased the matter has reached a resolution.

“Clearly this man has some personally problems and they need to be addressed.

“He has caused my family vast amounts of pain and upset - probably more than I realised until I was in that court.”

Despite that, Councillor Watkin said he hopes Oakley is not sent to prison.

“I don’t want him to go to prison because I don’t believe in sending people to prison”, he said.

“I think prison causes more harm than good in most cases.

“But I really hope the guy gets treatment because he is clearly deranged.”