Ex-Tory MP William Wragg reveals he swapped naked photos with WhatsApp catfisher within hours of their first contact - as he tells how scandal made him want to kill himself
A former Tory MP caught up in a honeytrap scandal says he was left feeling suicidal after he swapped naked photos with a catfisher on WhatsApp.
A former Tory MP caught up in a honeytrap scandal says he was left feeling suicidal after he swapped naked photos with a catfisher on WhatsApp.
William Wragg told how he drove to his parents house and told them I need to go to hospital after he became overcome with very dark thoughts.
His mother took him to the local accident and emergency department where a receptionist cheerily asked him if he had a bad back to which he replied: No. Im suicidal.
Mr Wragg, 36, had fallen victim to a sophisticated scam using fake accounts to target Westminster politicians. It had left him suffering with panic attacks where he was shouting, crying, swearing.
During the sinister ordeal he exchanged naked photos and gave his colleagues phone numbers to Charlie who he had met on dating app Grindr.
In his first broadcast interview, Mr Wragg, 36, said he had been overcome with enormous guilt.
Feeling lonely one evening, he sent a message saying hello to an account of what he described as an attractive guy.
Within hours the conversation had moved to WhatsApp and he was soon exchanging naked snaps.
Former MP William Wragg has given his first broadcast interview in which he speaks about feeling suicidal after falling victim to a honeytrap scam
The former MP for Hazel Grove in Greater Manchester said he had been targeted by a suspected scammer who he met on the dating app Grindr (stock image)
Charlie would later use these to blackmail him and the former MP for Hazel Grove in Greater Manchester stood down from his role after admitting to exchanging explicit pictures.
A police probe began in April earlier this year after it was suggested at least 12 men with links to Westminster had received unsolicited messages from the aliases Charlie and Abi.
The fake accounts were allegedly engaged in a sophisticated scam designed to coax MPs and other figures in political circles into sending explicit pictures and other private or sensitive information.
Unlike others who had been approached by the catfish accounts,Mr Wragg approached Charlie himself after spotting the profile on gay dating app Grindr.
He believed the account to be a real person before exchanging explicit photographs with the catfish.
In the days that followed, Mr Wragg claimed he felt threatened and pressured into sharing the phone numbers and personal information of his Westminster colleagues to the mystery account.
He feared the catfish would leak his intimate images in retaliation if he did not comply.
Speaking to the BBC in his first broadcast interview about his involvement, Mr Wragg said he spotted the first news articles about the Westminster honeytrap scandal on the train.
The former Conservative Party whip told the broadcaster: My stomach just dropped.
He messaged what he described as an attractive guy and it quickly moved onto WhatsApp where he exchanged naked photos
William Wragg MP, member of the United Kingdom Parliament for Hazel Grove, speaking at the Grassroots Out campaign event in Manchester on February 5 2016
Former Tory MP Mr Wragg who was at the centre of the Westminster honeytrap scandal earlier this year which he says left him feeling suicidal
When I found out some of the things that had been going on, I just felt enormous guilt, enormous remorse.
After the former Hazel Grove MP handed over the personal information, the catfish told Mr Wragg to vouch for its identity with its next potential victims, with the catfish telling its fresh targets he was a former researcher for Mr Wragg.
Mr Wragg agreed, which is what he feels the most regret for as it was deceitful.
Not long after he was allegedly blackmailed, Mr Wragg began to have panic attacks, with bouts of yelling, crying, and swearing shocking his sleeping flatmates.
He told the BBC that while his housemates were worried, he could not explain to them what was going on.
Then, when the story broke, the humiliation and shame became too much for him to handle.
He recounted photographers and the press camped outside his parents house, which is where he drove as suicidal thoughts began to set in.
Shortly after receiving the appropriate medical attention, he returned to Westminster to resign as Conservative whip and from his posts on two parliamentary committees.
He had already announced he would not run in the next general election.
Asked by BBC reporter Joe Pike how he feels, seven months on from the scandal that ended his career in politics, Mr Wragg said: I have no bitterness or anger left in me because I felt so wretched and awful in myself.
He added: Its a source of great shame that my time in Parliament ended in this way.
Mr Wragg walks with Boris Johnson in 2015 during the official opening of his new Stockport office
Mr Wragg was first elected to the House of Commons as MP for Hazel Grove, the Greater Manchester village where he grew up, at the tender age of 27
On his final day as an MP, he said he had a consult with a psychologist, which he thought to be a fitting end for his nine-year tenure at Commons.
He then added a grim truth about the pressures of life within the walls of Westminster: They have two mental health beds available at any one time for members of Parliament, he said.
Its surprising how often theyre occupied.
In June, a member of the Labour Party aged in his mid-20s was apprehended in Islington, north London, on suspicion of harassment and offences under the Online Safety Act.
He has since been released on bail.
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