A WIRRAL councillor who was the victim of a drunken death threat by a former colleague on the day MP Jo Cox was brutally murdered said she believes justice was done.

In an exclusive interview with the Globe, Cllr Louise Reecejones said justice has been done after ex-councillor Jim Crabtree was given a suspended jail sentence.

He appeared at Birkenhead magistrate's court and pleading guilty to sending a grossly offensive or indecent message to Cllr Reecejones, Labour councillor for Pensby and Thingwall, on June 16 last year.

The incident took place on the day Jo Cox - a personal friend of Cllr Reecejones - was shot and stabbed to death outside her constituency surgery in West Yorkshire.

The court heard Crabtree, 62, a former Labour councillor for Bidston and St James ward, threatened he would kill Reecejones unless she paid him £19,000.

And in the ten-second call he went on to call her a "bitch."

Cllr Reecejones said: "As a councillor it’s accepted that you will receive a certain level of abuse, but you shouldn't have to endure what I went through.

"I thought he would have got a tougher sentence, given the position he used to hold, however I am happy that he was sentenced.

"Hopefully, this will act as a deterrent.

"Jo Cox had just been murdered, so to say what he did on the phone that day was quite incredible.

"At first I wasn’t going to report it, but then my husband said it could be somebody from Pensby and I could be canvassing on their doorstep one day."

Prosecutor Alan Currums told Wirral Magistrates Court on Wednesday that Cllr Reecejones had received an alert on her i-pad that her mobile phone was ringing.

She answered the call, a withheld number, unaware that it was Crabtree on the other end.

The court heard Crabtree had told her: "You need to pay back the £19,000 bitch, or I will do what happened to that MP today."

Police traced the call and Crabtree was arrested along with a friend. At the time he denied making the call but later changed his plea to guilty.

Praising the police response, Cllr Reecejones continued: "The police were fantastic and acted quickly.

"When they told me the call had been made by somebody in my ward I was shocked, but when I found out who it was I couldn’t believe it."

Crabtree, a father-of-four from Hilburn Drive in Bidston, sat in the dock with head down as sentence was passed.

Magistrates gave him a 12-week prison term suspended for a year and imposed a restraining order banning him from contacting Cllr Reecejones.

He must pay £500 costs, £500 compensation and £115 victim surcharge.

The court heard Crabtree, who has no previous convictions, had been dropped from the Labour candidate list and left the council at local elections in May 2015.

On the day of the phone call he had been drinking while watching a football match with a friend.

Defending solicitor Quentin Neal said Crabtree, who now works at an airport, was "deeply remorseful."

He added: "My client accepts that word 'despicable.'

"The call took about five to ten seconds and it was totally out of character.

"He has brought shame on himself and those around him.

"A man of good character, he served others as a member of the local authority and with Birkenhead Lions Club.

"He now won't be able to serve on the local authority and will have difficulty working for charity."

COURT__Ex_Wirral_Labour_councillor_admits_making_death_threat_to_colleague_on_day_MP_Jo_Cox_was_murdered/