‘Abusive’ man found guilty of harassing Stella Creasy MP on tube train

A 63-year-old man has been found guilty of harassing the Labour MP Stella Creasy after he was “abusive and aggressive” to her on a tube train.Clifford Wilby, of east London, saw the MP for Walthamstow in July 2025 on a Victoria Line train, Westminster magistrates court heard.He blocked her from leaving the tube carriage and started talking to her about knife crime and her “failings as a member of parliament” and then filmed her on his mobile phone, the court heard.Other passengers intervened and got in between them before Creasy left the carriage.Sarah Madden, prosecuting, said the pair first met during a Zoom meeting in 2024 in Creasy’s capacity as an MP. The meeting was terminated due to Wilby’s behaviour.Creasy, giving evidence from behind a screen, said during the online meeting he “made a series of very serious allegations”, became abusive and “referred to the fact he had been diagnosed as a psychopath”.She said he started to make a complaint about a constituent and she reminded him that she could not discuss somebody else’s case.He became “abusive, aggressive” and they terminated the conversation, said Creasy.Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow. Photograph: Nicola TreeCreasy said that on 15 July last year she had boarded a Victoria Line train and was intending to move further down the train at the next stop, and looked up to get off the train and made eye contact with the defendant.“He said ‘are you Stella Creasy?’, at that point my memory kicked in and I made the connection because I knew his face, he then confirmed he was Clifford Wilby,” said the MP.“He stood up and blocked my ability to leave the carriage, he began talking to me about his concerns about my constituent, he was shouting although the tube train is a loud environment.”She added: “Obviously I was concerned that I was in an enclosed space with him. He was very close.“I stated very clearly this wasn’t an appropriate conversation to be having.”Creasy said at this point she was backed up against the door of the carriage and was holding her hands out as a gesture “to say stop”.She got off the train at Finsbury Park by exiting through another door further up the carriage.Tess McCarthy, defending, put to the MP that she could have got off the train as the incident continued to which Creasy replied “no”.Wilby said he had been hoping to continue the conversation about the constituent on the tube but the MP “became quite agitated” and he was “quite shocked by her reaction”, so he pressed record on his phone “for my safety”.He added: “At no point did I stand in front of her. When I first spoke to her she was actually getting off the train and she turned around to speak to me, I stood up because it was noisy.”The defendant also denied telling Creasy in 2024 he had been diagnosed as a psychopath.The deputy chief magistrate Tan Ikram found Wilby guilty of using threatening, abusive, or insulting words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm, or distress and adjourned sentencing until 8 September for reports.