Clifford Wilby Found Guilty of Harassing Labour MP Stella Creasy on London Tube Train
A 63-year-old east London man has been found guilty of harassing Labour MP Stella Creasy during an encounter on a Victoria Line tube train in July 2025. Deputy chief magistrate Tan Ikram delivered the verdict at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 11 August 2026, convicting Clifford Wilby of using threatening, abusive, or insulting words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm, or distress. Sentencing was adjourned until 8 September for reports. The Guardian
The incident occurred on 15 July 2025. Wilby blocked Creasy from leaving the tube carriage, spoke about knife crime and what he described as her "failings as a member of parliament," and filmed her on his mobile phone. Other passengers intervened, positioning themselves between Wilby and the 49-year-old MP for Walthamstow before she was able to exit the train at Finsbury Park through another door further up the carriage.
The prosecution, led by Sarah Madden, established that the tube encounter was not the first contact between the two. Wilby and Creasy had initially met during a Zoom meeting in 2024, held in Creasy's capacity as an MP. That meeting was terminated due to Wilby's behaviour. Creasy testified that during the call, Wilby made serious allegations, became abusive, and referred to having been diagnosed as a psychopath. Wilby denied telling Creasy he had been diagnosed as a psychopath. Tess McCarthy appeared for the defence.
Creasy gave evidence at trial from behind a screen, a measure typically sought where a witness's safety or wellbeing is a concern and one that underscores the intimidatory dimension courts can recognise in harassment proceedings against sitting parliamentarians.
The case fits within a broader pattern of concern about the safety of MPs in public spaces. While the verified facts of this case are limited to the single charge and the events described, the conviction of an individual who had a prior, terminated contact with the MP, and who then escalated to physical obstruction on public transport, is the kind of escalation that parliamentary security briefings and police liaison teams monitor closely. The thirteen-month interval between the offence and the verdict, and the further adjournment for pre-sentencing reports, are consistent with magistrates' court procedures where bench reports are ordered to inform sentencing options ranging from conditional discharge to custodial sentences, depending on assessed risk and culpability.
For MPs and their staff, the practical takeaway is procedural rather than novel: constituency casework meetings terminated for cause are documented incidents, and any subsequent unsolicited physical contact can be prosecuted under public order legislation without requiring a dedicated stalking or harassment charge under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. Wilby was convicted under the lower-threshold public order provision, which requires threatening, abusive, or insulting behaviour causing harassment, alarm, or distress, rather than a course of conduct demonstrating harassment.
The role of bystanders warrants note. Passengers physically interposed themselves between Wilby and Creasy, creating the window she used to leave the carriage at Finsbury Park. Whether this fact influences Ikram's sentencing assessment on 8 September remains to be seen, though victim impact and the involvement of third parties are routinely weighed in magistrates' court disposals.
Wilby remains at liberty pending sentencing.
