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Met Police
A scientist has been jailed for sending fake poison to Theresa May in a letter criticising her policy on Russia.
Christopher Doyle sent the white powder to the then Prime Minister in April 2018, a month after ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal was poisoned.
It was addressed to Theresa May, c/o The Nazi Party and enclosed was a cartoon poster showing her decapitated.
The ex-Cambridge University research fellow was sentenced to two years and 10 months at Liverpool Crown Court.
The mail, which also included a picture of former spy Alexander Litvinenko, was examined at a Swiss Post screening facility which had to be evacuated, the court heard.
Doyle, from Cheshire, had denied sending the powder and told officers he believed it may have been planted by MI5 or MI6, but he was convicted following a trial.
The 54-year-old, who had a PhD in neuroscience and said he previously worked at Government facility Porton Down, suffered from bipolar affective disorder, the court was told.
He told police he had also written a letter to Boris Johnson criticising his attitude to Russia and a letter to then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in which he praised him.
Mark Pritchard, defending, said Doyle had been living with agoraphobia since 2013 following the death of a friend.
"He has been in a bubble of pro-Russian Facebook groups to which he has been a member," he said.
Joseph Allman, prosecuting, said when police raided Doyle's home in Fir Street in Widnes they found more than 245,000 indecent images of children on a laptop.
Doyle pleaded guilty to making indecent photographs of children and was ordered to sign the sexual offenders' register and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order.
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