Council boss guilty of harassing neighbours in lockdown hot tub row

22 September 2022, 09:26 | Updated: 22 September 2022, 15:22

A deputy council leader has been found guilty of harassing his neighbours, after a woman contacted police concerned the councillor appeared to be holding meetings in his hot tub.

Thomas Hollis, 28, deputy leader of Ashfield District Council in Nottinghamshire, has been found guilty of two counts of harassment by a judge at Nottingham Magistrates' Court.

The judge found Hollis did not hold council meetings in his hot tub, and used his home for work during the Covid pandemic.

District Judge Leo Pyle said Hollis calling his next-door neighbour Luke Golding a "paedophile" was "deplorable" with no basis or evidence to back it up.

The court had heard that neighbour, Shannon Jones-Golding, witnessed Mr Hollis meeting people in his garden while he was in his hot tub in May 2020.

The woman contacted police on 101 to check "if it was allowed". The police visited the area and said that Mr Hollis was a "key worker" and that there was no breach.

Mrs Jones-Golding said Mr Hollis then confronted her, saying: "I know it was you who made that anonymous call to the police. I heard your voice. I have contacts in the police."

He added he "made the rules", saying she would be "done for harassment of a key worker", courts were told.

In a second incident, Mr Hollis accused her and her husband, Luke Golding, of breaching Covid rules after they invited Luke's father into their back garden to fix a bicycle.

The court heard Mr Hollis was allegedly "up on a table over the fence with a camera".

The incident is said to have escalated after Mr Hollis called Mrs Golding-Jones' husband a "paedophile".

A 999 call - played in court - was made by Mr Hollis shortly after "screaming" that he was being threatened with a "one-and-a-half foot carving knife".

Police officers from the Taser unit visited the scene, but were "satisfied" no such incident occurred after reviewing phone footage that Mrs Golding-Jones filmed during some of the confrontation.

The judge found the claim to be an "entirely false accusation".

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Mr Hollis was also convicted of a second harassment charge for sending Ms Jones-Goulding a a threatening letter on council-headed paper.

The court heard that "malicious emails" were sent by Mr Hollis to the couple along with council-headed letters.

Mrs Golding-Jones described the impact of the incidents saying: "It totally changed our lives as a family. I didn't feel like I could protect my children in that home."

The judge told Hollis that he will be sentenced on 13 October.