// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Police had councillor's fingerprints on hate mail - but dropped case
Gerard Woodhouse was convicted in 2025 of sending up to 100 offensive, anonymous cards to a former Labour Party colleague
Police had fingerprint evidence linking a high-profile councillor to a poison pen letter up to 12 months before he went on to target another politician in a "persistent and wicked" hate mail campaign.
Well-known Liverpool anti-poverty campaigner Gerard Woodhouse, 63, was given a community order last year for harassing ex-Lord Mayor Christine Banks – who he had known for 50 years – with anonymous letters and cards in the post between 2023 and 2025.
But the BBC has learned that although an investigation that pre-dated his hate campaign against Labour colleague Banks yielded fingerprint evidence from a letter sent to a housing association boss, the inquiry was stood down because officers were "unable to establish contact" with the alleged victim after she left her job.
Despite reopening the case earlier this year, police have now had to drop it because the time limit for prosecuting harassment allegations has expired.
The alleged victim, Julie Fadden, 65, said if Woodhouse had been dealt with he might have been stopped before he began harassing Banks and other suspected victims.
Merseyside Police did not respond to the BBC's questions about whether it had done enough to contact Fadden during the 2022 investigation.
Woodhouse became a councillor in 2010, and served as its older people's champion and achieved a national spotlight with his anti-poverty campaigning.
After being de-selected by Labour in 2022, he bombarded Banks with more than 100 offensive cards and letters until his fingerprints were found on one in summer 2025.
He was arrested and pleaded guilty to harassing Banks, who he claimed to have become fixated on as a result of internal Labour Party fall-outs while suffering from severe mental health problems.