Coroner feared for safety of his family over alleged kidnap plot, court told

A coroner told a trial that he feared for the safety of his family after a group of people accused of a plot to kidnap him turned up at his court looking for him.

Lincoln Brookes, senior coroner for Essex, said he received a series of “very bizarre” letters in 2022 before receiving emails in April 2023 stating that “corporal punishment may be administered”.

He described the emails, which claimed to be warrants “for seizure of goods and persons”, as “troubling” and “upsetting”.

Mark Christopher, 58, of Forest Gate, east London, Matthew Martin, 47, of Plaistow, east London, Shiza Harper, 45, of South Benfleet, Essex and Sean Harper, 38, of South Benfleet, Essex are all on trial and all deny conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to commit false imprisonment.

Mr Brookes told Chelmsford Crown Court on Wednesday that in an attachment to an email he was accused of “detrimental necromancy”, adding: “I thought, this person’s making no sense.

“I was thinking this person, already in my mind, can’t be rational,” he said.

He said the attachment said that “corporal punishment may be administered on the spot”.

The coroner said he “felt this was a security threat to my safety” and later contacted police, but said he was told the “risk was low”.

He said there was a further “ominous” email on April 19 last year, before people turned up looking for him the following day – on April 20.

He said he had not been at the coroner’s court in Chelmsford that morning, having accompanied a family member to a hospital appointment, but was due to attend the court to preside over an inquest that afternoon.

Mr Brookes said he was warned not to come to the building and was told “these are the people from the letter – they’re coming to get you”.

“I turned around and started driving home as fast as I could as I was fearful for the safety of my family,” he said.

The coroner said he “pulled over as I was upset”.

Describing the email of April 19 2023 he said: “What was different this time was this business of being ‘held for a minimum of 45 days by police and thereafter to be sentenced’, which was ominous.

“And ‘with all rights removed they may never enter the world private again’ – I didn’t know what it meant but it sounded ominous.”

He described reference to corporal punishment as “a threat of harm, serious harm”.

He said he had sent the details of the email to management at Essex County Council, and planned to send it to Essex Police.

He said he saw that the email had also been sent to the Chief Constable of Essex Police, and had been “assured I didn’t need to take this too seriously” so “felt it could wait until the next day”.

Mr Brookes said that he received “half a dozen or so very unusual letters in the post” between March and September 2022, which then stopped.

“When I opened the first one I couldn’t make any sense of it,” he said.

“It was written in such a way it was gobbledegook, gibberish, legal sounding but not legal.”

He added that the letter was “very bizarre”.

“The first one I have to say dealing with the bereaved I deal with lots of vulnerable people having a very difficult time,” said Mr Brookes.

“I tried repeatedly to try to make sense – what was it they wanted from me and can I help.

“But I couldn’t really make any sense of it whatsoever.”

He said he searched on the coroner’s service computer system for names of the people on the letter but there was “nil result”.

The court heard some of the correspondence was labelled as an “affidavit”, with references to “the penalty of perjury” and “agent for artificial person”.

“When the initial letter came I referred it to the legal department of Essex County Council which gives legal advice to the coroner’s service as I thought this was odd to say the least,” the coroner said.

“She said she agreed she couldn’t make any sense of it.

“She thought this might be some fraud or scam.”

He continued: “It wasn’t threatening, didn’t think at the time.

“We decided to keep an eye on it, see how many come.

“We noticed they were from different individuals.

“It would be hard to show what was a course of action, if you were going to argue harassment.

“It seemed to us these were emanating from different individuals.

“We were worried if we engaged with this it would encourage more of it.”

He said the letters appeared to stop in September 2022, but an email arrived in April 2023. He said: “I thought ‘here we go again’ then I opened the attachment”.

Asked if it caused him “more alarm” than the previous correspondence, he said: “Yes, a lot more.”

He said the “first thing I did was start Googling actually” and he found a website for Mark Kishon Christopher – who was named in the correspondence – which he said “seemed like goggledegook again”.

Michelle Brown, Essex area coroner, told jurors she had been conducting documentary inquests – from paperwork and without witnesses or family present – when four people entered the courtroom on April 20 last year.

“All of a sudden these four people came in,” she said.

“At first I couldn’t work out who they were – I told them ‘excuse me, what are you doing, you’re coming into my court?’

“The main gentleman wasn’t wearing a hi-vis jacket, the other three were.

“At first I thought they were maintenance people or something.”

She said they “carried on walking towards me” and “it wasn’t until I saw the symbols on the hi-vis jackets that I realised who they were”.

“I knew of letters that had been received by the coroner’s service with those symbols on and I had read the contents of some of those letters,” said Ms Brown.

“I asked them to leave and this main gentleman (Christopher) who wasn’t wearing the hi-vis jacket started to talk.

“It wasn’t a conversation, it was a script.

“And it was clear from the positioning of them that they were some group and he was the leader of that group.

“He said that he wanted Mr Brookes.”

Ms Brown said she told them that Mr Brookes “wasn’t here”.

“He wanted me to take him to him and I said ‘no’,” she said.

“That carried on – he was quite insistent.

“He then asked where his office was.”

She said he “kept demanding that I find and get Mr Brookes”.

“The female of the group had like, the newspaper bags, and she was instructed to throw that on the ground to seize the court,” said Ms Brown.

“I was told by the main gentleman they had seized the court and it was in their control.”

She said she was “accused of interfering with the dead by the leader”.

“Because there were so many of them I did feel very vulnerable and I didn’t want to say anything, having read some of the things previously there wasn’t really anything I could say,” she said.

She said they “made mention they had handcuffs and given Mr Brookes wasn’t there I believed they would take me”.

Ms Brown said that Martin assaulted security guard Mr McCormack and broke his glasses.

She said that they told her they would visit her and Mr Brookes at their respective homes if they did not surrender the court, and she added: “That’s very worrying with family and not knowing really what they were capable of doing.”

Christopher also denies sending threatening letters to Mr Brookes with intent to cause distress or anxiety.

Martin denies assault by beating of Mr McCormack on April 20 2023, and the criminal damage of his spectacles.

The trial continues.