A man has been jailed for attempting to frame his landlady’s partner for inciting the terrorist murder of a police officer outside the Houses of Parliament.
Gerald Banyard, 67, sent two packages to police suggesting that Ian Anderson-Boles had links with Khalid Masood, the terrorist responsible for killing 48-year-old PC Keith Palmer in the 2017 Westminster Bridge attack.
Masood, 52, was shot dead by police after he killed four pedestrians with his vehicle before smashing into railings and stabbing the unarmed officer on March 22 in 2017.
Eight days after the attack, Banyard sent a package to Brighton police station which claimed to be from an American tourist called Kevin who had found a suspicious note in his hotel room.
The note read: “Khalid, stick a cop for the old days”.
It was signed “Ian” and included Mr Anderson-Boles’ mobile phone number.
A second package, marked for the urgent attention of Scotland Yard, was sent by Banyard from Leeds, where he was then living, containing another handwritten note.
The second note, which contained the phone numbers of both Mr Anderson-Boles and his partner Deborah Morley, read: “Khalid Masood met a guy called Ian from Eastbourne. When in Brighton they were friends for years.”
A court heard how Banyard attempted to frame his landlady's partner over a row about a broken boiler.
Banyard had lived in a flat with his now late father in Eastbourne, in a block owned by his victim’s partner, when a dispute over a faulty boiler escalated, culminating in Mr Anderson-Boles kicking the front door in, the court heard.
Judge Christopher Hehir told him: “You wanted revenge on Ian Anderson-Boles and you were quite determined to serve it cold."
The court heard how police had dedicated around 260 man hours to probing Banyard’s false claims.
Banyard was branded a "truly devious and manipulative man” by the judge.
“Your conduct involved baseless allegations of complicity in an act of mass murder, which is what the Westminster attack was," he told him.
“You sought to suggest Ian Anderson-Boles had incited Khalid Masood to murder Pc Keith Palmer, the brave police officer killed as a result of the attack.
“It is difficult to imagine a more vile imputation.”
Banyard, of Whalley, Lancashire, was sentenced to a total of three years and two months in jail on Thursday (May 20).
He had claimed he did not send the packages and was himself framed by an actor now living in the US, who he had gone to drama school with.
He was found guilty of two counts of perverting the course of justice but failed to attend court on the last day of his trial.
Banyard was then arrested in a hotel in Glasgow with more than £50,000 in cash and 8,350 US dollars after police launched a manhunt.
He was also handed an indefinite restraining order preventing him from contacting Mr Anderson-Boles or his partner, as well as police officers involved in the investigation.
