AN Anti-Semitic Worcester pensioner who compared the BBC to ‘Nazis’ and ranted at ‘idiot’ city police has been spared jail.

BBC-bothering James Evans, who has mental health issues, had already been served with a restraining order which prohibited him from contacting BBC Hereford and Worcester in Hylton Road and the city’s MP, Robin Walker. However, he began breaching the order yet again from April 8 last year, sending BBC Hereford and Worcester nearly 200 letters. When arrested he described police as ‘helpless idiots’.

The 74-year-old of Bath Road, Worcester already had five convictions for breaching the order when he appeared at Worcester Crown Court on Wednesday.

Andrew Davidson, prosecuting, said: “The defendant has a history of harassing the BBC and others in an obsessive way - often with an anti-Semitic tone. He has a belief that Jews are controlling the state (and the BBC).”

A restraining order was imposed at Worcester Magistrates Court on July 29, 2017 which was later amended at Worcester Crown Court. The order stipulates that he must not contact any employee of BBC Hereford and Worcester or Worcester MP Robin Walker. He is also banned from going to the BBC premises in Hylton Road.

“This restraining order was imposed for the safety of the team at BBC Hereford and Worcester” said Mr Davidson. The letters he sent to the BBC were also addressed to various parties, including Boris Johnson and the Queen. When he appeared before Recorder Abigail Nixon at Hereford Crown Court in November ‘the defendant became abusive towards the court from the dock’, the prosecutor told the court.

We reported in 2018 how Evans clashed with another judge after the defendant criticised ‘Zionist Jews’, described by him as ‘a death cult’ which will get ‘everyone killed in World War Three’.

Belinda Ariss, defending, asked that Evans be given credit for his early guilty plea. She said he had written further letters since April but there had been no complaint.

“He has written these letters but put them in the bin” said Miss Ariss. She also said he had met with a doctor for a video conference and things appeared to be going well.

Judge Nicolas Cartwright, sentencing, said Evans had worked within the probation and mental health services before he retired in his 50s and had led an impeccable life.

It was only in his later years that he had developed these obsessions, in particular with conspiracy theories, which had led to him writing the letters.

Judge Cartwright described the letters as ‘rambling rehearsals of your conspiracy theories which, by their nature, involve the expression of views which can be characterised as anti-Semitic’.

However, though he said it was a high culpability offence because it involved multiple breaches of the order he said the harm was only category three within the guidelines.

“Nobody has taken your letters particularly seriously. They are of nuisance value” said the judge.

He said the offence was ‘seriously aggravated’ by previous breaches of the same order. The judge also referred to a letter from the defendant in which he accepted he had a mental illness which measured itself in compulsive and obsessive letter-writing about politics and social issues which he was not able to control without psychiatric help.

Evans wrote: “I’m concerned about the impact my compulsive behaviour is having on my wife and family.”

The defendant added: “I know I risk going to prison but it would resolve nothing as I need help to overcome by delusional and obsessional behaviour.”

The probation service also echoed the defendant’s views. Judge Cartwright said Evans did not pose a high risk to the public. But he added: “You are, I stress, a nuisance.”

Judge Cartwright imposed a four month prison sentence but suspended it for two years. He also imposed 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 60 hours of unpaid work.

He must pay a contribution towards costs of £250.