‘Cult’ members who tried to kidnap a coroner for ‘detrimental necromancy’ have been jailed.
Mark Christopher, 59, Matthew Martin, 47, Shiza Harper, 45, and Sean Harper, 38, appeared at a coroners court with rigid handcuffs, branded hi-vis vests and an image of senior Essex coroner Lincoln Brookes on April 20 last year.
The group, known as the Federal Postal Court or ‘Court of the People’, accused him of performing necromancy – the supposed practice of communicating with the dead to predict the future.
He had previously received a series of bizarre letters before being told that ‘corporal punishment may be administered’.
Mr Christopher, ‘who lay at the very heart’ of the plot, was sentenced to seven years in prison for conspiracy to kidnap and falsely imprison Lincoln Brookes, senior coroner for Essex.
His three co-conspirators – Mr Martin, 47, Ms Harper, 45, and Mr Harper, 38 – have been jailed for 30 months each for conspiracy to kidnap and commit false imprisonment.
Mr Christopher was also found guilty of sending threatening letters with intent to cause distress or anxiety, for which the judge handed him a concurrent 18-month sentence for malicious communication.
Mr Brookes wasn’t at the coroners court when the group arrived and demanded to know where he was.
He was attending a relative’s medical appointment at the time, and was told not to come to work as ‘these are the people from the letter – they’re coming to get you’.
Essex area coroner Michelle Brown said the group came into her courtroom and the leader ‘kept demanding that I find and get Mr Brookes’.
The judge, Mr Justice Goss, told jurors while summing up evidence in the case that the Christopher was the ‘self-appointed leader’ with the title ‘chief judge of England and all dominions’.
He said Martin was a ‘sheriff and a coroner’, Sean Harper a ‘sheriff’ and his wife Shiza Harper a ‘postal inspector and auditor’.
Mr Christopher has also been banned from contacting either Ms Brown or Mr Brookes.
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