A former Ceredigion County Council candidate who told Ceredigion MS Elin Jones that she should be “strung up” in a series of distressing messages has been sent to jail for harassing her and three others.

Mark Bolderston, now of Brynhir, Capel Seion, appeared before Llanelli Magistrates’ Court on 25 April.

Bolderston, who has a long history of harassment offences, pleaded guilty to three further counts of harassment towards Anwen Raftree and Julie Jenkins between 27 and 31 March in Aberystwyth, as well as Elin Jones MS at the Plaid Cymru offices on Pier Street in Aberystwyth on 19 September last year.

He also pleaded guilty to breaching a restraining order by messaging David Davies in Aberystwyth on 24 June last year.

The court heard that Bolderston told Ms Jones she “should be strung up” - a term magistrates said was “wholly unacceptable.”

Magistrates said the seriousness of the messages sent to Ms Jones was “aggravated by the fact they were towards a member of the Welsh parliament”, and showed an “element of persistence to someone working in a public facing role.”

Magistrates said the four offences were “so serious that only a custodial sentence could be justified” because the “number of offences aggravate each other and aggravated by previous convictions.”

Overall, magistrates said, the messages sent to the victims were “clearly intended to cause distress, and have caused distress, with element of planning.”

In 2017, Bolderston stood for election for Ceredigion County Council as an independent candidate for the Aberystwyth central ward.

Just weeks into campaigning, Bolderston was arrested and charged with the harassment of Plaid Cymru candidate Mark Strong – incidents which left Cllr Strong “fearful for the safety of his family.”

He was fined by magistrates and issued a restraining order for that offence.

Bolderston received 12 votes in the election.

In 2018, he pleaded guilty to sending offensive emails to Ceredigion MP Ben Lake, repeatedly calling Plaid Cymru members ‘paedophiles’ after the arrest – and subsequent conviction - of then MS Simon Thomas for possession of indecent images.

Bolderston was handed a 26-week suspended sentence just last month for another harassment offence and breaching a restraining order.

He has now been jailed by magistrates for a total of 38 weeks, with 12 weeks for the latest offences and the 26 week suspended sentence activated.

Bolderston was also made the subject of four further restraining orders against the four victims.