Former Labour councillor charged in ‘honey trap’ blackmail case
Opposition groups want to know who knew what when over Oliver Steadman's resignation
Friday, 19th September — By Daisy Clague
Oliver Steadman was a Labour councillor in Islington for just 69 days
A FORMER Labour councillor who mysteriously resigned from his Town Hall seat after two months in office has been charged with blackmail.
Oliver Steadman, 28, is also facing five counts of improper use of electronics communications when he appears in court next month.
He was arrested last year by detectives investigating the so-called Westminster honey trap scandal which drew in MPs and people working around parliament.
Questions are now being asked about how the local Labour party acted after learning of his arrest.
Regularly seen in Labour’s campaigning photos, Mr Steadman’s time as a councillor ended after just 69 days.
When it was announced he had resigned from the council, Mr Steadman and the then council leader Kaya Comer-Schwartz gave no comment as to why he had gone.
This triggered a costly new by-election at which people went into the polling booths in Hillrise not aware of the real reason they had been asked to vote for a new councillor so soon after electing Mr Steadman.
Speculation over the reason has been constant until the announcement of criminal charges on Wednesday.
Both the Liberal Democrats and the Greens said they would be asking questions of the ruling group over how it handled Mr Steadman’s departure.
The charge of blackmail relates to alleged unwarranted demands for the contact telephone numbers of up to 12 individuals, according to a statement by the Crown Prosecution Service.
The other charges relate to four other alleged victims.
Malcolm McHaffie, head of the special crime division at the CPS, said: “This follows an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Service which looked into messages that included alleged unsolicited indecent images sent to a number of people within parliamentary political circles between October 2023 and April 2024 using WhatsApp.
“Our prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring this case to court and that it is in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings.”
Legal restrictions now mean further details cannot be reported until the court case.
