Trolling deputy’s penalty cut to year without pay
A POLITICIAN at the centre of social media trolling complaints has had his recommended penalty reduced from expulsion from the States to a one-year suspension without pay – a move that could cost him just more than £40,000.
Deputy Chris Le Tissier won a partial reprieve after an appeal panel found that the original sanction was too harsh because there was no criminal act involved, nor an abuse of power leading to personal gain.
However, the new panel still found that Deputy Le Tissier had broken multiple parts of the rules for States members.
The breaches included using ‘offensive, sexualised language’, breaking the public’s trust, and not showing objectivity, accountability, openness, courtesy to others, or diligence.
It also noted that, despite a public apology and a self-referral to the code of conduct panel, Deputy Le Tissier had shown ‘limited contrition’, and this was regarded as an aggravating factor.
‘Rather than considering his own conduct he has tended to focus on others’ conduct, including but not limited to that of the complainants, and on minimising the seriousness of his conduct, including suggesting that his posts had been taken out of context,’ the report states.
‘We did not gain the impression from our meeting or any other material which we saw that Deputy Le Tissier had really reflected on the impact of what he had done, the offence his comments had inevitably caused, and how they would undermine public trust in his role as a deputy.’
Deputy Le Tissier said yesterday that he was digesting the contents of the latest finding.
‘I’m consulting with my fellow deputies about the report. It’s early days, it’s all up in the air. I’m not mindful to resign.
‘It will be up to deputies to accept or reject it, there could even be an amendment. We’ll have to wait for the result and see on 14 July.’
That is the date the States will debate the panel’s findings.
The case centred around online tweets that Deputy Le Tissier made under the pseudonym ‘radiosutch299’.
In March, seven people had lodged complaints with the code of conduct panel, and made representations that the comments were misogynistic and xenophobic.
Deputy Le Tissier’s appeal was based on four grounds – bias, the way the decision was announced, procedural irregularities, and the sanction imposed.
The first two were thrown out, but the appeal was upheld on procedural irregularities and the sanction being unjustified.
Specifically, the complainants had been given the opportunity to repeat, enlarge and alter their complaints verbally before the original panel, and Deputy Le Tissier was excluded from that part of the hearing.
Mitigating factors included the fact that Deputy Le Tissier had made a self-referral to the panel, and that he was a new and inexperienced deputy at the time.
It was accepted that the use of an anonymous social media account ‘may have been naive rather than a deliberate attempt to deceive’.
. The Guernsey Party suspended Deputy Le Tissier’s membership earlier this year. A spokeswoman said it would be inappropriate to comment on the latest recommendation until the outcome was determined by the Assembly.
