A flood of obscene e-mails angers MP

A BOLTON MP has complained to the police after he began receiving around 10 obscene e-mails a day.

Dr Brian Iddon and his staff decided to inform officers after they started to receive a constant stream of hardcore pornographic images.

The offensive e-mails have also been offending many of his colleagues, and a hi-tech filter is to be installed on the parliamentary computer network after he asked Commons leader Robin Cook to upgrade the network to stop the e-mails from coming through.

He said the influx of material jammed his inbox, making it difficult to sift through e-mails to find genuine messages from constituents. It is also hindering his staff, whose time is wasted deleting the unwanted e-mails.

Dr Iddon, MP for Bolton South-east, said: "We receive hard core pictures on a daily basis and my staff have better things to do than deal with them.

"The worst comes by a method called Hyper Text Mark-up Language, which means if you happen to open that e-mail accidentally, page after page after page of this highly offensive material is displayed on the screen without any mechanism for switching it off. I want to see filters in place."

His staff said the e-mails, which had become more frequent over the past six months, had been reported to Bolton police.

Dr Iddon said: "When my staff go away for a week, the inbox fills up so much that some constituents receive automatic replies which tell them their e-mail cannot get through."

Many home computer users are also regularly sent unsolicited, explicit e-mails -- a trend which has boosted sales of filter software.

Police confirmed Dr Iddon's office had complained about the e-mails and they were looking into the matter.

Comment: P10