Plaid Cymru - Harassment

A MARRIED councillor who made 109 silent telephone calls to a woman accountant with whom he had been having an affair has been cleared of bringing his local authority into disrepute, it emerged yesterday.

A Plaid Cymru member of Swansea Council, former teacher Rhodri Thomas, 51, made many of the calls from the Plaid office at Swansea’s County Hall.

Last year, Swansea Magistrates gave the father of three, of Sketty, Swansea, a two-year conditional discharge with £50 costs after he admitted harassing Kathryn Halliday.

They also ordered him to stay away from her.

On Monday, members of Swansea’s Standards Committee decided to “censure” Mr Thomas for misuse of council property (the telephone), a breach of section 7(c) of the councillors’ code of conduct.

He admitted the breach and said yesterday he had paid back the cost of the calls to the council.

At the same Standards Committee meeting he was cleared of an alleged breach of section 6 1 (b) of the code which states councillors should not act in a manner which could bring the office of councillor or the council itself into disrepute.

He was also cleared of an alleged breach of section 6 1 (a) which states councillors in their official capacity or otherwise should not commit a criminal offence or cause one to be committed.

Yesterday, Swansea Conservative councillor Rene Kinzett criticised the censure decision as too lenient.

Tags: Plaid Cymru, Harassment, disrepute