Residents of Oakham breathed a sigh of relief when a High Court Judge disqualifed Oakham Town Councillor Martin Brookes from holding public office either in Oakham or anywhere else after disgusting the town in an incident known locally as ‘Pornogate’.
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| The story as it appeared in the Rutland Mercury |
Standards for England, the body responsible for maintaining standards in
public office, took Cllr Brookes before a Tribunal after a string of complaints
against him by fellow councillors, staff and members of the public. The Tribunal found that Cllr Brookes had
been guilty of a large number of breaches of the Code of Conduct, calling one
councilllor an ‘arsehole’, another an ‘old bag’ and ‘vilifying’ the Clerks on numerous
occasions. He also subjected a female member of the public he had never met to a tirade of homophobic abuse.
However, the worst incident
by far was when Brookes, who is a keen amateur photographer, broke open the Council’s main noticeboard in the High Street and
filled it with anal fetish material which promptly led to Brookes’s arrest and
cautioning and subsequent downfall at the Standards Tribunal.
Mobile phone video of the incident sent to Laughing Stocks by a member of the public confirms reports widely circulating in the town that the images showed a naked man with a carrot engaging in what can only be described as cruelty to vegetables!
Mystery surrounds the identity of the model in the photographs, but the images taken by a member of the public clearly show one of the pictures was
captioned “This is my ex-husband, I shouldn’t really show it round – he’s got
the one of me”.
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| Stills from a video of the noticeboard. The full horror of the scene has had to be deliberately blurred out by us! |
In his final adjudication Presiding Judge David Laverick said of Cllr
Brookes: “There is no indication that the Respondent has
shown any sign of understanding the standards set by the Code of Conduct
despite his agreeing to follow the provisions of that Code. The Tribunal can
see no alternative to disqualifying him from being a member of the Town Council,
and any other local authority. The Tribunal has decided that the period of
disqualification should be two years. That period will allow the particular
Town Council to move to a more normal way of operating and will also allow the
Respondent time to reflect on the standards which are expected of those in
Public Life."
As well as the Pornogate incident, Brookes has also gained
notoriety for a series of other bizarre doings. His crazy antics have included:
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Sending a press release to all UK national media organisations saying his ex
was ‘crap’
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Proclaiming himself ‘God’s gift to men’
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Saying that he would never shoplift in Oakham because the up-market
shops have nothing he wants
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Claiming that if women get cancer it is their own fault
It has been reported that ex- Cllr Brookes is trying to appeal against Judge Laverick's opinion that he is "unfit for public office". We don't fancy his chances much!
