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Police had obtained fingerprint evidence linking a prominent councillor to a poison pen letter up to a year before he embarked on a prolonged and malicious campaign of hate mail targeting another politician. Gerard Woodhouse, a well-known Liverpool anti-poverty campaigner aged 63, was given a community order last year for harassing Christine Banks, a former Lord Mayor whom he had known for five decades. The harassment involved sending anonymous letters and cards through the post between 2023 and 2025.
According to a BBC report, an earlier investigation before the harassment of Banks revealed fingerprints on a letter addressed to a housing association manager. However, that inquiry was halted because police were reportedly “unable to establish contact” with the alleged victim after she left her position. Although the case was reopened earlier this year and Woodhouse was arrested and questioned, the police have now dropped the investigation since the statute of limitations for prosecuting harassment offences has expired.
Julie Fadden, the alleged victim of the initial letter, expressed frustration over the missed opportunity to address Woodhouse’s behavior sooner. She believes that if he had been held accountable at that time, the subsequent harassment campaign against Banks and potentially others could have been prevented. Merseyside Police have not responded to inquiries regarding their efforts to maintain contact with Fadden during the original 2022 investigation.
In correspondence to Fadden, a detective constable from Merseyside Police explained that while other offences such as harassment might have been more fitting, the six-month statute of limitations for harassment had lapsed by June 2022. Consequently, malicious communications charges, which do not have a limitation period, were pursued instead. Nonetheless, the police stated that despite the letters being offensive, the content did not exceed societal thresholds for shock, insult, or degradation. Fadden voiced disappointment with this outcome, noting that the police had her phone number all along despite claiming difficulty reaching her and criticized delays that could have averted further harassment by Woodhouse
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