A man who sent sexually explicit emails and bomb threats to his local MP and two schools in St Albans was given a hospital order on Friday, April 30, 2021.
Bonam Miah, who has paranoid schizophrenia, is to be detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act.
Prosecutor Jane Davies told St Albans crown court that in September 2019 Miah, now 40, sent emails to Ann Main, the St Albans Tory MP from 2005 to 2019, Mandeville Primary School and Marlborough School in the city.
She said: “They included bomb alerts, sexually explicit content and references to drugs. The offensive references caused the recipients distress.”
Hertfordshire police were contacted and Miah, who had used his own email address, was traced to his home in Martins Court in St Albans. At his home, the police found the drugs: crystal meth, ecstasy and cannabis.
Miah was unfit to plead to four charges of sending grossly offensive communications, two of possessing Class A drugs and one of possessing Class B drugs. A jury found that he had carried out the acts in the charges. He was of previous good character.
He has also been charged with sending similar emails to the magistrate and crown courts. The CPS is to review those charges following a sentencing hearing.
Psychiatrist Dr Michael Shortt told Judge Philip Grey: “He (Miah) would benefit from being under a hospital order. He has delusions and poor insight. I think he would pose a risk to others and is liable to send such communications again.”
He went on: “Mr Miah was of the view that there was not a real offence and there was a conspiracy involving police and colleagues to get him into trouble because he is of Asian heritage. He believed his mental health was God-given and linked to Mother Nature.”
Dr Shortt said Miah had not been making progress while being treated in the community.
Defending, Jonas Milner said Miah had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia since 2012. He said: “He is frightened and scared of what might happen. He has an incredibly heart-breaking history. His is a vulnerable person who is confused and scared.
“He is sorry for the offences. He wishes to be a law-abiding member of society.”
Judge Grey told Miah the emails were: “deeply concerning”. He said: “They were incoherent and not the product of a well mind.
“They caused considerable distress and alarm. It is completely unsurprising that Ms Main, her family and those at the schools were so alarmed in what they read.”
The judge made a Hospital Order detain him at the Beech Ward in Radlett. He told him: “You continue to pose a substantial risk of causing distress and fear. The focus of the order is to protect the public and rehabilitate you.”
