July 23, 2008

Neo-Nazis have threatened to kill me, says election candidate

A candidate in the Glasgow East by-election says a neo-Nazi gang has threatened to kill her.

Scottish Socialist Party co-founder Frances Curran claims she was formally warned by police that her home could be attacked.

Curran, who has sent her eight-year-old son to stay with relatives, said: "I was told by my neighbours that the police have come knocking three times during the day. I was contacted later and they said that a threat had been received, specific to me and my home. They said no other candidates had been targeted. They wouldn't specify who made the threat but I was given the clear idea it was from some kind of neo-Nazi group."

The advice from Strathclyde Police is believed to have been an "Osman Warning" - given out only when credible information is received that violence is a genuine possibility.

Curran said officers from the force's Operational Support Unit advised her to be on her guard and promised her home in Partick, Glasgow, would be watched. And she vowed she would not be intimidated into pulling out of tomorrow's poll.

She said: "I am concerned but it will be business as usual for me. I didn't take the police up on their offer of an inspection of my home security but I'll be watching my back."

Curran, 47, is joint national spokesperson of the SSP with Colin Fox and was one of six socialist MSPs elected for the West of Scotland at the 2003 Holyrood election - but lost her seat in 2007. In 2005, she played a leading role in protests outside the G8 summit at Gleneagles. She has also campaigned against Trident nuclear weapons and was due to join striking civil servants at the Glasgow passport office this morning.

The "Osman Warning" came from the case of Paul Paget-Lewis, a teacher who wounded a former pupil, Ahmet Osman, to whom he had formed a disturbing attachment, and killed his father, Ali, and two others.

Last night, a Strathclyde Police spokesman said he had no information on Curran's claims.

Daily Record

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