A former Labour councillor has been charged over the Westminster “honeytrap” scandal where MPs were coerced into sharing personal contact details.
Oliver Steadman, 28, faces one count of blackmail and one charge of improper use of a public communications network, prosecutors confirmed. The charges relate to one victim.
He has also been charged with four further counts of improper use of a public electronic communications network after allegedly sending unsolicited indecent images to four other victims.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the offences involve five people working in politics and Westminster.
The scandal first emerged last year when Conservative MP William Wragg admitted giving out colleagues’ phone numbers after being targeted by someone he met on the dating app Grindr.
Wragg later quit the Tory whip and did not stand in the 2024 general election.
Several men in politics reported receiving WhatsApp messages from people calling themselves “Charlie” or “Abi”, who claimed to have met them at political events before asking for explicit images.
The CPS said the alleged offences took place between October 2023 and April 2024.
Steadman, a former Islington councillor who worked on Labour’s general election campaign, was arrested in June 2024.
Malcolm McHaffie, head of the CPS special crime division, said prosecutors had concluded there was sufficient evidence to bring the case to court and that a prosecution was in the public interest.
Steadman is due to appear at Westminster magistrates court on 3 November.
