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A man has been arrested in connection with the Westminster “honeytrap” scandal.<\/p>\n
Police arrested a man on suspicion of harassment and offences under the Online Safety Act in London on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Multiple victims were informed by the Metropolitan Police shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year a string of men, mostly working in politics, revealed that they had received unsolicited, flirtatious WhatsApp messages from people calling themselves “Charlie” or “Abi”. In some cases explicit images were exchanged. <\/p>\n
William Wragg, then an MP, resigned the Conservative whip after saying that he gave the phone numbers of fellow MPs to a man he met on a dating app because he was “scared”.<\/p>\n
Others targeted included the then-Conservative MP for Bosworth, Luke Evans, who said he had contacted the police after becoming “a victim of cyber-flashing and malicious communications”.<\/p>\n
In April the Met announced it was investigating reports of unsolicited messages being sent to MPs and others.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: \u201cOn Wednesday, 26 June, police executed a warrant at an address in Islington.<\/p>\n
“A man was arrested on suspicion of harassment and committing offences under the Online Safety Act. He was taken into custody where he remains.<\/p>\n
“The arrest relates to an investigation being carried out by the Met\u2019s Parliamentary Liaison and Investigation Team following reports of unsolicited messages sent to MPs and others.<\/p>\n
The investigation remains ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Police had first been made aware of the messages late in 2023, but news of them began to emerge publicly in April.<\/p>\n
Following initial reports about the messages, Mr Wragg told The Times he had been chatting with someone on an app who subsequently asked him for the numbers of others.<\/p>\n
“They had compromising things on me. They wouldn’t leave me alone… I gave them some numbers, not all of them.”<\/p>\n
He apologised for \u201cmy weakness\u201d which he said had \u201ccaused other people hurt\u201d.<\/p>\n
Subsequently other politicians and political journalists spoke of their own experiences of receiving unwanted messages<\/p>\n
The following week, Luke Evans, then Conservative MP for Bosworth, said he had been a \u201cvictim of cyber-flashing\u201d.<\/p>\n
As many as 20 people in political circles were thought to have received unsolicited messages.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n