Inappropriate messages?

Police probe Labour parliamentary hopeful who 'went on Snapchat and asked public schoolgirl, 17: Ready for bed yet?'

• Richard Garvie was investigated by police over 'inappropriate' messages 
• Labour candidate allegedly asked 17-year-old girl if she was 'ready for bed' 
• Police found no offences were committed but he was given 'strong advice' 
• Separately Garvie was suspended by Labour after being convicted of fraud 

By Neil Sears and Andy Dolan for the Daily Mail 

Published: 17:00 EDT, 1 May 2015 | Updated: 20:53 EDT, 1 May 2015 

Richard Garvie has been investigated by police over ‘inappropriate’ social media contact with a 17-year-old public schoolgirl.

A Labour Party candidate has been investigated by police over ‘inappropriate’ social media contact with a 17-year-old public schoolgirl.

Richard Garvie, 30, is said to have sent messages to the sixth former after addressing students at Wellingborough School, Northamptonshire, last week.

It is believed the girl’s mother alerted the school after discovering Garvie had been contacting her daughter.

Allegedly the would-be MP asked the girl whether she was doing anything that night and if she was ‘ready for bed?’.

Both the £14,500-a-year co-ed school and the police immediately launched investigations into the matter.

A spokesman for the school said: ‘The situation was investigated immediately, in keeping with the school’s safeguarding policy, and was reported then to the Northamptonshire Police, who followed their own investigative lines.’

Last night a spokesman for Northamptonshire Police said: ‘An investigation took place and our officers determined that no specific offences had taken place, however, he was given strong words of advice regarding his conduct.’

Garvie had been at the school for a hustings with rival candidates for the constituency of Wellingborough and Rushden. It was the last of three similar events at local schools.

Tory candidate Peter Bone, who is hoping to hold on to the seat, has a child at the school and described the allegations surrounding Mr Garvie as ‘quite disturbing’. 

He added: ‘Whatever was said was obviously serious enough for the school to bring in the police.’

In a further twist, Garvie has been suspended by Labour over a separate matter, meaning the party now has no candidate in the constituency because it is past the deadline for replacing him. As he is already down on the official list of candidates, he remains up for election but as an independent. 

Garvie was suspended after failing to tell his party that he was facing a fraud case. On Thursday, magistrates found him guilty of buying almost £1,000 of rail tickets from a bank account he knew had insufficient funds. He is yet to be sentenced. But Labour Party officials had by then also been told about the humiliating inquiries into their candidate’s online contact with schoolchildren.

The scandal began ten days ago when all the Wellingborough candidates attended the hustings at the historic school – founded in 1595 – and were questioned by an audience of boys and girls. 

A school source said: ‘I was told [Garvie] got into a conversation with a schoolgirl on Snapchat in which you send messages with a photo, which are designed to disappear after a few seconds, although you can take copies of them to keep.

Allegedly the would-be MP asked the girl whether she was doing anything that night and if she was ‘ready for bed?’

‘She forwarded to a friend one of the messages Garvie sent her, and the words were “ready for bed?”.’

Another source said the girl involved had shown the messages to her boyfriend, who said they were inappropriate. He then told her mother, who complained to the school.

A group of sixth formers were then called in to a meeting with headmaster Garry Bowe.

Last night Garvie, a former local radio DJ from Corby in Northamptonshire, denied any interactions with an individual girl, saying he only talked politics online with a group from the school.

Mr Garvie said: ‘I don’t accept that I’ve done anything inappropriate. If something inappropriate had taken place there would have been an offence committed.

‘I don’t think I did have a Snapchat conversation with anyone.

‘I engaged with a group of students from the school on Twitter, about the Mansion Tax and Non-Dom tax relief or whatever it is...

‘I got a b******ing from a sergeant. The words of advice were that if I’m being invited into schools for a debate, not to engage with students on social media afterwards or in any form. He had said he wanted to talk to me about Twitter.’

Last night the Labour Party did not respond to questions about its disgraced candidate’s dealings with schoolgirls, but said in a letter to Garvie that he had been suspended over his conviction for the fraudulent purchase of rail tickets. Garvie is appealing his suspension.