Ex-councillor who stalked Dame Penny Mordaunt jailed for 20 weeks

A former councillor has been jailed for 20 weeks after stalking Dame Penny Mordaunt which she said left her fearing “sexual violence”.

Edward Brandt was found guilty at Southampton Crown Court of the offence but acquitted of a more serious charge of stalking involving serious alarm or distress.

The trial was told that the 61-year-old sent at least 17 emails and three phone messages to Dame Penny, as well as turning up at her Portsmouth constituency office out-of-hours between September 11 2023 and May 12 2024.

She said in a statement to police that she “feared sexual violence” because of the defendant’s “creepy” behaviour.

Brandt, who worked as a professional sailor, was also sentenced for seven breaches in December 2025 of a stalking protection order in place until November 2034 by failing to notify police of devices capable of connecting to the internet and of the creation of accounts on Facebook and Snapchat.

He was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison for the stalking offence and eight weeks to serve consecutively for the breaches.

Sentencing Brandt, Judge William Mousley KC told him: “I am satisfied that there is a real risk of you reoffending or causing harm to other people.

“Also, having regard to the nature of these offences, the appropriate punishment must be by way of immediate imprisonment.

“I do not sentence you on the basis of Penny Mordaunt’s person impact statements but it’s very clear that your behaviour had a very significant and enduring impact on her.”

He added: “Any reasonable person would have known your behaviour amounted to harassment.

“Dame Penny Mordaunt was the Member of Parliament for Portsmouth North, you were living on the Isle of Wight and were not one of her constituents.

“As an MP, she was vulnerable as she would make herself available to meet members of the public.

“There have been before and since incidents where MPs have been attacked or worse in the course of carrying out their jobs as constituency MPs, and Penny Mordaunt would have been only too aware of that and would justifiably been frightened of incidents occurring in her constituency.

“Reasonable people will have understood that.”

The trial heard that Brandt, who lived on the Isle of Wight at the time, failed to comply with a verbal warning by police as well as the terms of a conditional caution issued in April 2024 which required him to complete a victim awareness course and not to contact Dame Penny.

The divorced father-of-two, who now lives in Lymington, Hampshire, then left two voicemail messages for her on May 6 and 10 and in one of the messages, he said: “I am going to go on gently knocking at your door in order to shake your hand, I am not giving up.”

The court heard that Brandt had two previous drink-driving convictions and an offence of battery against a former partner.

The court also heard allegations of inappropriate behaviour by Brandt towards other women.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, the former Conservative Party leadership candidate said that she had been “living in fear” causing her to increase security at her office and at home, changing her routine.

She was also given the protection of a plain-clothes policeman to “shadow” her at a carol service where she was the special guest.

She said: “I am completely exhausted due to the stress, every time I step out of the building I am looking over my shoulder and checking to see if he is there.

“I am living in a constant fear of a confrontation.”

Dame Penny, who hit the headlines for carrying ceremonial swords at the King’s coronation, continued: “It’s hugely impacted all aspects of my life, both my professional life and personal life, and I cannot stress enough how much I am exhausted by it.”

She said: “The nature of these messages and his actions have led me to conclude his intentions are much more serious and he is unlikely to be deterred.

“He has caused me huge anxiety and distress.”

Dame Penny added that if he were to contact her home, she would have to move address and said: “It makes me so angry that I may have to move from my home city because this man is not capable of understanding the word no.

“Going through this has been hell.”

Explaining his actions, Brandt, a former councillor for East Hampshire District Council, told the court that he wanted to “congratulate her” and shake her “gold-plated and precious hand”, and said that his intention “was entirely political and entirely harmless”.

Brandt, who said that he had been diagnosed as having ADHD and on the autism spectrum, said he had not had responses from Dame Penny’s office about his requests to meet her, and added: “I wasn’t getting a reply, I harmlessly kept trying.”

Timothy Dracass, defending, said: “His responsibility is substantially reduced by reason of a mental disorder or learning disorder namely his neurodiverse condition.”