Former Edinburgh MP tells how police failed to act over stabbing threat

A former city MP has told how police were unwilling to act after a teenager threatened to stab him at his constituency office.

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John Barrett, who was Lib Dem MP for Edinburgh West from 2001 until 2010, said the incident happened around 2005 at his shopfront premises in Drum Brae Avenue.

Speaking in the wake of the tragic stabbing to death of Tory MP Sir David Amess at his constituency office in Southend, Mr Barrett said: "I was standing at the front door of my office and this young guy, about 16 or 17, came up to me quite aggressively.

Former Edinburgh West Liberal Democrat MP John Barrett

"He was on a bike and started giving me abuse, then he threatened to stab me.

"I'd never met him before."

Mr Barrett said he had taken a photograph of the teenager.

"I went down to Corstorphine police station, told them about it and said there were witnesses.

"The police said there was nothing they could until he stabbed me.

"I said surely you can go and have a word with the individual and say you can't go around threatening to stab people.

"They were totally not interested.

"I showed the officer the photograph of the boy.

"He said 'How are we going to identify him? It's a lot of police effort’.”

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Mr Barrett said he later showed the photograph to his daughter who was about the same age.

"She said 'Everybody knows him, he's a bit of a wild boy'. So I'd identified him in five minutes flat.

"But that was the police response to the threatened stabbing of an MP – basically 'There's nothing we can do because it's just a verbal threat. If he stabs you there's clearly a law that's been broken.'

"Not everyone who commits a minor crime goes onto something major, but a lot of people responsible for major crimes have done minor things. That's why they've got to do or say something."

Mr Barrett said he wondered what the police reaction would be to a similar incident 15 years on.

"If someone threatens to stab an MP what are they going to do about it now? Back then the response from the police was absolutely nothing they can do, not interested.

"What if the young guy had come back and stabbed me and the police had to say yes we had been given his photograph, we had been told he was going to do this and we said there's nothing we can do until you're stabbed? That's useless, completely diabolical."

He also recalled another incident when an angry constituent came to his house while he was out but his daughter was at home.

"There was a banging at the front door and this person shouting away, my daughter was inside and the guy's hand came through the letter box like a horror movie."

The police said they couldn't do anything 'It will be your daughter's word against his'."

Mr Barrett said he was glad to be out of frontline politics now, but he said threats had to be taken seriously.

"If someone makes a verbal threat the police need o go round to see him. Somebody has got to react to early warning signs. Saying we'll wait till something happens is completely useless.”

Police Scotland was approached for comment.

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