'I didn't sleep. It was constant. I could turn the notifications off, but they were still there'

'I didn't sleep. It was constant. I could turn the notifications off, but they were still there'
Welsh MP Alex Davies-Jones has spoken out about being harassed and threatened in a bid to help others
Pontypridd MP Alex Davies-Jones was the victim of harassment
(Image: Alex Davies-Jones )
Just over two weeks ago, Alex Davies-Jones stepped into a courtroom at Cardiff Magistrates' court. An MP, and government minister, she is used to speaking in formal settings, but this was different, because she was asked to place her hand on a bible, give an oath, and then give evidence to a courtroom as a victim of harassment.
Switching the Commons for a witness box was something the UK Government's victim minister didn't want to do, but after a number of incidents she had endured, she felt it was important to do, for herself, for colleagues, for others who one day might enter politics.
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She was out campaigning in Treforest in Rhondda Cynon Taf, on June 26, just a few days before the general election when she saw two people waiting at the place she was due to meet campaigners. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here
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Before that day - as with many of her colleagues - her office had been targeted with protests held outside, posters stuck to the walls but she also knew leaflets were being posted around the constituency about her.
"They were quite insulting and just not very nice, for want of a better description, accusing me of genocide and accusing me of things that weren't true and it was hard to see that," the Labour MP said.
After the October 7 attacks on Israel, protests stepped up, and ahead of votes in the UK Parliament there was co-ordinated action by campaign groups but she says that became "sustained" once the general election was called.
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Before this, there has been online or email abuse, but this was the first in-person incident she had experienced, which felt more acute as it was in her constituency. "The vast majority of abuse or threats you have to are not necessarily from real people or they don't seem to be real people because they're online," she said.
"The day it happened we had scheduled our campaigning sessions in advance and this was the last one of the day, and it had been published on the Labour Party website where we were going to be for Labour members to join.
"I was with a group of about five or six members and more were joining. We met up at the meeting point and they were there, both of them, at the meeting point. They had put up posters on the lampposts surrounding where we were meeting at Hoffi Coffi in Treforest and were handing out the leaflets that I had seen previously about myself so I knew what it was.
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"I thought there's two things I can do here, I can either try and engage and try and be the grown up and speak to them about potentially de-escalating it and get them to chat to me about this because they tend to be very passionate, or I can just walk away and ignore them.
"I made the decision to to go up to them and try and speak to them."
Asked if she regretted that now, she said no. "No, I don't, because I still think that trying to engage with people is always better, especially in person.
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"I immediately realised that one of them was filming the interaction so I was obviously very careful of my actions and what I was saying and was aware that it was being filmed. I tried to engage in a conversation, I tried to explain to them that they were wrong, that I hadn't abstained on the ceasefire vote because I wasn't even in the country at that time.
"I tried to articulate all of the action I had taken to support conflict free resolutions in the Middle East, the work I'd done to support Palestinian women who had allegedly been raped by IDF soldiers, the work I've been doing support Jewish women who'd been raped on October 7. I pointed them to debates that I've spoken in Parliament, and I was like talking about what I had been doing in terms of diplomatic work.
"It was clear that they didn't agree with me, and it was clear that it wasn't going to be resolved. So I said, look, 'we'll stop it there'.
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"We walked away from where we were due to be campaigning, and then they started following us down the street.
"The interaction was getting more inflammatory, more aggressive, more frustrated, I suppose from their point of view, because they weren't getting what they wanted out of me necessarily. So they started following us down the street. It was awful, it was scary. They were shouting, 'Do you support genocide' and 'You're responsible for murder'. All of this was being screamed down the street as we were walking down the street. They were continuing to hand out leaflets to people as they were passing and screaming this to us.
"We tried to get away from them, so we took a different route," she said.
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Ayeshah Behit leaving Cardiff Magistrates Court after being convicted of harassing Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones
(Image: PA )
As they began knocking on doors in a different area, the pair - Ayeshah Behit and Hiba Ahmed - found them. "Every door we were knocking, they were then knocking and speaking to the people about why I was a genocidal baby killer.
"It was just awful and I felt responsibility to my team, to my volunteers. I had quite a number of young volunteers never done this before that have been campaigning, and I didn't want them to be exposed to risk." She cancelled the session.
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"I think if that had been it, I would have said 'it was awful, but it's sadly part and parcel of being an elected representative or standing for an election. People have the right to speak to you and disagree with you'," she said.
But that night, she said her office was defaced with stickers, which were highly adhesive and ripped the paintwork off. They were also put on local bus stops, local landmarks, monuments saying she supported genocide and was a "murderer".
The Pontypridd MP continues: "Then they posted footage of the interaction that we had in person on social media but they did it in a way that was manipulated. They didn't put our full conversation on but amplified it, made it look like I was lying and that hurt me more than anything because people can say I'm many things, you can disagree with me, but I am not a liar. That really, really got to me because then that was when the huge amount of abuse started, because they incited a pile on for people to contact me, and it was relentless."
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As a candidate, she felt she couldn't withdraw from social media. "I didn't sleep. It was constant. I could turn the notifications off, but they were still there. I was doing a general election campaign and social media at that moment is key in terms of engaging with local voters and it was it was a bombardment which became terrifying because the escalation of abuse was awful."
She has a young family, who has she spoken about publicly, but she said what didn't come out during the court case was that the pair broke bail conditions by emailing her. "One of the emails that was sent to me did make reference to the fact that I have a child and that really scared me because the words were used were 'I know you have a son ' and the way it was conveyed and it was really scary," she said.
Hiba Ahmed, 26, (centre), leaving Cardiff Magistrates Court after being convicted of harassing Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones
(Image: PA )
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"It's really hard because I have chosen to be open and honest about my personal life because I think my personal experiences of being a mother going through IVF, having pre-cervical cancer, going through all the difficulties I have done, some of my colleagues have chosen not to open themselves up and not appear more human because of the risk that the more you open yourself up, the more then you become a target to potential attacks," she said.
For the year before her case reached court, she said it was "hanging over me". "You know it's coming. and you psyche yourself up for it. You prepare yourself to go through that process.
"I think about it all the time and now, I think about how will my interactions in public with constituents or whoever, what will that be like now? And I do feel like sadly, politics has become a lot more inflamed in recent years.
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"That's why it's also really important to humanise this, because people think we're just these people on screen or doing things rather than actually real human beings and that's why it's important to humanise this but then that does make me feel conscious of activity when out and about."
All MPs have enhanced security offered to them after the killing of Sir David Amess. "I would say it is a different level of threat being a female MP because my male colleagues aren't necessarily subject to the misogynistic abuse that we are, which is more sustained. Research shows we are more prone to abuse compared to male colleagues and I would stress BME MPs are even more open to abuse."
The risk factors into her day-to-day decisions. "Every time you plan to do something in person then you have to think about the safety implications. I'm not just responsible for myself. I'm responsible for my team. I'm responsible to whoever else may be coming to an event. I'm responsible for my family if they with me at an event, so you have to be aware and I think that's only responsible to do that of what security implications might mean about advertising your attendance something in advance, or opening something up to everyone to attend, or going to something that could be deemed to be controversial.
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"There's two sides of this. I've had a lot of praise and thanks from colleagues for pursuing the case because they have said thank you for being brave, because it's important that people realise that this is unacceptable and this did cross that threshold of holding your Member of Parliament to account and harassment and that's what the judge found in the case.
"But then there's also the other side of this that I don't want what has happened to me and the normalisation of abusive of elected politicians to put anyone off from doing this job either. I have that responsibility to the next group of MPs coming forward, male or female, because this is still the best job in the world and I don't want that to influence anybody's decision into 'Gosh, this is awful. Why would anyone do that?'
However, she does believe her experience of being a victim and having giving evidence in court will shape her experiences. "Now I've got that lived experience of having gone through it all, waiting for the trial to get to court, having been through the witness liaison officer scheme, speaking to police, the different agencies, being treated as a witness in court, giving evidence while your perpetrators in the dock and how that is all played out.
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"I have that experience now, which has helped me in terms of looking at, 'well, how can I make this experience better for victims and survivors?'.
UK Government victims' minister Alex Davies-Jones has spoken about her own experiences of appearing in court
(Image: Alex Davies-Jones )
"Ultimately, I don't want to diminish my case in any way, harassment happens to to individuals every day and it is awful and it is terrible, but also there are a number of victims and survivors all waiting years for their trial."
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She said she wants victims to be at the heart of the system. "One of the things I'm responsible for is the victims code, we are looking at how we give more power to the victims commissioner, so that they're able to hold agencies to account in our Bills coming forward and all of this is now feeding that work and giving me that perspective I didn't have before."
Ms Davies-Jones said it has shaped her wanting to make sure victims can "take part in the justice system and do so safely and make them feel like they're able to represent the best version of themselves, so that we have an opportunity for justice to be heard in a courtroom"
"Is there more we can do to make sure that victims actually stay engaged in the in the criminal justice system? Because we know court backlogs are so long, and we know that it can be quite difficult and traumatising to actually revisit that crime or your perpetrator in court," she said.
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There was a protest outside the court on that day, and protestors came to fill the public gallery. The courtroom had to be moved three times to accommodate all interested parties.
"I just wanted to tell the truth, and I wanted to explain how all of this had happened. What's happening in Gaza is horrific. It's intolerable. It's awful and likewise, what happened on October 7 and the hostages still being held is awful and for people to think that I am in support of genocide or of murdering children is is it just terrible. I wanted to put that over that of course, that isn't the case.
"We can have a difference of opinion about how you approach things and politics and policies but there is a line and when that line is crossed, then the action should be taken."
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