A mayoral election is “likely to take place in the coming weeks” in Hackney after mayor Philip Glanville announced his resignation.
Mr Glanville stepped down as mayor of the borough today (September 15), after he attended a party with a former councillor the evening after he discovered of their arrest for child porn offences.
In the now-deleted image, which was posted on Facebook, Mr Glanville is pictured with former councillor Tom Dewey at a party on May 14 last year at 9.40pm, according to a timestamp.
Hackney’s chief executive Mark Carroll had phoned Mr Glanville the same day to inform him that Dewey had been arrested on April 29 and faced serious charges.
In a letter handed today to Dawn Carter-McDonald, chief executive of Hackney Council, Mr Glanville confirmed his resignation and said he made “an error of judgement”.
Responding to the announcement, the chief executive said: “A mayoral election is likely to take place in the coming weeks, and I will provide more information as soon as I am able to.”
Mr Glanville’s last day of office will be next Friday (September 22). Statutory deputy mayor Cllr Anntoinette Bramble will act in the mayor’s place “for as long as necessary”.
This afternoon I have written to the Chief Executive of @HackneyCouncil to tender my resignation, which has been accepted, please find a copy of that letter attached to this tweet/post. pic.twitter.com/EultQLgdhz
— Mayor of Hackney (@mayorofhackney) September 15, 2023
Ms Carter-McDonald said: "Today I have accepted the resignation of the Mayor of Hackney, Philip Glanville.
“The mayor’s last day of office will be Friday 22 September 2023. I want to take this opportunity to thank the outgoing mayor for his seven years of service as mayor and the 17 years he has given to the borough and its residents as an elected politician.”
Mr Glanville was suspended by Labour at the end of August.
In his mayoral resignation letter today he said: “As I previously made clear, I had my trust betrayed, but in turn I made an error of judgement and was not as transparent as I should have been. For that I accept full responsibility.”
He continued: “At our last full council meeting I stated I had never put the safeguarding of anyone at risk. That remains true. At every stage as mayor, I did what needed to be done to safeguard children and allow the council to do its job without fear or favour.”
What did Tom Dewey do?
Dewey, who had been elected at the May 5 elections in 2022, resigned as a councillor after meeting the chief executive just over a week later on May 16.
On August 15, 2023, 36-year-old Dewey was given a suspended prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing indecent images of children – five images in the most serious category A, 41 in category B and 203 in category C.
He also admitted to possessing 78 extreme pornographic images portraying acts likely to result in serious injury to a person’s private parts and 1,523 prohibited images of a child such as cartoons or CGI images.
National Crime Agency (NCA) officers received four tipline reports after Dewey uploaded indecent images to his online Google Drive.
Police arrested him at his home in Hertford Road, Hackney, on April 29, 2022, and five devices including a work laptop were seized.
The images found showed penetrative and sadistic acts being performed on young children as well as images involving scenes of serious violence for the intention of sexual arousal.
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