Porn e-mail probe into BNP councillor

Jo Winrow | Saturday, 28 October 2006 Source: This is Bradford

Hard-core pornographic pictures e-mailed to dozens of people have landed a Bradford BNP councillor in an investigation into his conduct.

Queensbury councillor Paul Cromie has been referred to the Standards Board over the e-mail containing photographs of a BNP official taking part in what appears to be a sex party.

The Telegraph & Argus received the offensive message, as well as two Bradford Council officers, a number of Queensbury constituents and several BNP members.

The Council has confirmed Coun Cromie is being investigated over the possible code of conduct breach for bringing his office or the Council into disrepute. It follows a complaint by a member of staff who received the lewd e-mail.

The e-mail itself appears to have originated from a Yahoo account and claims to be proof that the man in the five pictures is a "swinger", and has then been forwarded several times.

Coun Cromie told the T&A that he considered himself "computer illiterate." He said he had "no idea" where the e-mail came from and could not explain how it had been sent to everyone in his address book.

"The first I knew about the e-mail was when I got a phone call from the party tearing my head off saying What the hell are you doing sending that sort of e-mail out?' "I told them I didn't have a clue about it. I checked on my computer and there was nothing in the sent items'.

"Initially some people at the party thought I had done it out of malice to bring the party into disrepute - that I had gone traitor. You would have to be pretty stupid to think I actually did this."

He claims someone hacked into his system, normally only accessible with a password.

Coun Cromie said he had recently contacted customer services at his provider with logging-on problems and had given his password over the phone, which he had later been told was inadvisable.

"It's utter madness," he said. "I have nothing to hide though, and have to hope that the investigation will discover who sent this and why.

"I am the scapegoat in this."

Following the first e-mail, Coun Cromie sent a message to the same addresses apologising and claiming a virus was responsible.

Coun Cromie has been a member of the BNP for five years and a councillor since May. He is a married grandfather-of-three, a retired businessman and was chairman of Bradford BNP.

He has previously stood in Queensbury in 2004's local elections and as a parliamentary candidate for Bradford West in last year's General Election.