ABERGAVENNY COUNCILLOR CLEARED OF HARASSMENT BUT REPRIMANDED OVER TEEN FRIEND
A councillor has been acquitted of harassment charges but reprimanded by a judge over his relationship with a teenage girl.Kyle Eldridge, then a Labour councillor, was accused of sending unsolicited messages via email and social media to a girl he referred to as his "little sister", whom he first met when she was 14.
After a three-hour trial at Newport Magistrates' Court, the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence and returned a not guilty verdict on the single charge of harassment without violence.
However, Judge Sophie Toms admonished 28-year-old Eldridge, stating: "This sort of relationship, a lot of social media calls and multiple messages, with someone younger when you were well into your 20s is inappropriate.
Do you understand?" Eldridge responded: "Yes I do".
Judge Toms also listened to approximately 12 minutes of voice notes Eldridge had sent the girl in March last year, when she was 17, describing them as "manipulative".
In one message, the councillor expressed that he had been "heartbroken" over the end of their friendship and had cried at a conference of school governors while thinking about it.
He testified that he had become "confused" about their friendship following a "malicious joke" played by the girl, which he took "literally" due to his autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and reported it as a "safeguarding" concern.
Prosecutor Robert Reid stated the girl, who remains anonymous due to her age at the time, said that Mr Eldridge planned to report to social services that she had been raped by an acquaintance, which she could not understand.
Eldridge denied filing such a report but admitted seeking advice about a "safeguarding concern".
He voiced worries about the girl being taken to a pub at night by two men aged 29 and 32.
In a voice note after she blocked him on Instagram, Eldridge expressed deep regret, saying: "I'm genuinely brokenhearted and I can't express how much I'm sorry for the deep emotional trauma I put you through." He also mentioned: "In church I light a candle for you and when I was at a conference for school governors from all over Wales I took five minutes and burst into tears.
Tonight at a meeting with Labour Party members and MPs I just wanted to go to the toilets and have a big cry." Judge Toms highlighted that a handwritten note left for the teenager at her workplace and incidents where Eldridge approached her there were not reflected in the charge, which focused on Instagram messages and emails.
She noted the absence of evidence of contact prior to January last year, and also criticized the lack of evidence from the teenager's mother.
Considering a psychological report, the judge stated she believed Eldridge has a disability but was not certain he understood that leaving rambling voice messages and other forms of unwanted contact could amount to harassment.
She also suggested that this unwanted contact could have been addressed with a Police Information Notice, which is no longer issued, and rejected a prosecution request for a restraining order, noting Eldridge had not contacted the girl since April 2024.
Eldridge, who was elected as a Labour representative for Abergavenny Town Council's Park Ward in 2022 but has since sat as an independent, chose not to comment on leaving court.
