A Conservative councillor in Sutton was suspended by his party following allegations that he harassed a fellow member, and he was required to undertake social media training after uploading what the accused claimed was a naked photo of himself online. Steve Alvarez, a Conservative ward councillor in St Helier, was briefly suspended by his own party last month following complaints of internet abuse against Labour councillor Sheldon Vestey, who represents the Hackbridge ward.
The suspension marked the end of a nasty two-year fight between the two, with Cllr Vestey stating that Cllr Alvarez had subjected him to frequent internet harassment; a Met Police officer advised Alvarez to stop contacting him unless it was work-related, but no arrest was ever made. Among the social media posts directed at or responding to Vestey was a photo of him seeming naked on the top part, with only his shoulders showing.
Alvarez posted this photo from when he was in his twenties, claiming it showed the Labour member sharing obscene photographs of himself online. This shot, which Vestey claims would require extensive digging via his social media, was shared by Alvarez at least twice in public Twitter messages and once in a private message to Vestey. In his conversations, Alvarez also mentioned property Vestey owned in Norfolk, as well as information published on Facebook groups Vestey was a member of that had no local connection, which Vestey claimed demonstrated he had spent a significant amount of time reviewing his social media posts.
Alvarez, in turn, claims that Vestey has been harassing him via reports and social media communications. Vestey informed the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the feud appears to have begun after he raised concerns with all councillors at Sutton Council about a video posted by Alvarez that was judged racist by the charity Stop Hate UK. Vestey claims that a council officer suggested he report the footage to police, which he did.
Vestey told the LDRS: “For the following 18 months I attracted the unreasonable attention of what is ostensibly a coworker – who demonstrated a fascination with myself and my family, making comments about our plans, routines and holidays, commenting about pictures of our children, even sending highly sexualised [in respect of the historic photo showing me topless] and harassing messages resulting in the police asking him to cease contact.”
In an email seen by the LDRS, a Met Police officer tells Vestey he has asked Alvarez to stop contacting him unless it’s work-related. The officer also says he will ‘make arrangements for an arrest enquiry’ and that the investigation ‘will be treated as stalking’. However Alvarez was not subsequently arrested and he denies any allegations of harassment or stalking.
The alleged racist video shared by Alvarez showed the controversial columnist Katie Hopkins mocking Shamima Begum. The Met Police said it assessed the video as a possible hate crime but a spokesperson told the LDRS it was ‘not possible to identify the person responsible for posting the video and a decision was taken there would be no further action’.
Alvarez told the LDRS he denied that a council officer had clearly stated that the video he shared was racist. He went on to say: “Vestey then claims a council employee referred to me posting a ‘racist video’, the implication clearly being I am racist.”
Alvarez admits to uploading the video in July 2020, but claims he titled it ‘Can you believe this woman?’, indicating that he disagreed with the content. He says he erased it in 2022 because he didn’t want people to get the false idea of his views. He also claims that Vestey was rummaging through his own social media page to uncover a post from two years ago that could be seen as offensive.
Alvarez admits to uploading an image of a topless Vestey, but denies any harassment occurred. He stated, “While I acknowledge that my responses were somewhat childish, they were frustrated tit-for-tat responses to Vestey and his associates’ constant harassment and bullying of me.” Vestey’s suggestion, as he has elsewhere, that I have a sexual reason for doing this is clearly ludicrous. “I was obviously mocking him.”
The Conservative Party conducted an inquiry and convened a misconduct hearing. Vestey, fellow Sutton councillor David Tchilingarian, and another Sutton resident who had previously run as a Labour candidate all gave witness statements. Alvarez claims he “has had many online run-ins with the Sutton resident.”
