TAUNTON Deane MP Rebecca Pow has told how she feared she was the victim of an anthrax attack after opening a letter from a former vet that contained white powder.

Ms Pow said she dropped the letter from Maurice Kirk ‘like a hot potato’ and rushed to her kitchen to wash her hands.

Kirk, 76, is on trial at Exeter Crown Court accused of stalking his MP over more than a year between May 2019 and May 2020.

Ms Pow gave evidence from behind a screen which prevented her seeing Kirk and said she feared a terrorist attack when she saw the powder.

She said she thought back to the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox and an incident which was treated as terrorism in which the former home secretary Amber Rudd’s office was sent a white powder.

Ms Pow said she felt sick with fear when she learned that Kirk had been released from prison six months after the powder letter and was living in Taunton.

She was so worried when Kirk hand-delivered a second letter in May that she put on gardening gloves before opening it and called the police without reading it.

She installed security lights, upgraded locks and strengthened doors at her home and ensured she was always picked up from the station when she returned to Taunton from London.

She said she was ‘absolutely terrified’ and could not sleep because of worry about what Kirk may do next.

Kirk, of Westgate Street, Taunton, denies stalking that caused serious alarm or distress.

He is representing himself at the trial and his defence is that his actions were those of a constituent seeking help from their MP.

The prosecution has told the jury that Kirk was serving a jail sentence for an unconnected offence when he sent the letter containing powder that Ms Pow opened on May 17, 2019.

They say he ignored a warning from police when delivering a second letter by hand to Ms Pow’s home near Taunton on May 27, 2020, and went on to make aggressive calls to her office.

Ms Pow, whose husband died between the arrival of the two letters, said she arrived home on May 17, 2019 and found the first one in the letter box outside her home.

She said: “I noticed a white powder all over my hands. I became deeply uneasy. I dropped the letter like a hot potato.

“I thought about an incident in which Amber Rudd was sent a package with powder that was treated as terrorism, and about Jo Cox.

“I was deeply worried and rushed to the kitchen sink. I washed and washed my hands and then washed them again in the downstairs loo. I thought it could be anthrax.

“I was worried it was harmful or malicious. I put on rubber gloves and went back to the package. I did not want to go near the powder but took four photographs and rang my office and the police.”

She said she felt sick with fear when she learned Kirk had been released from prison in November 2019 and had moved to Taunton.

She said: "It did not fill me with any kind of joy. I was really frightened and felt physically sick. I was worried about going home because I was alone by that time.

“I was very, very concerned and really nervous about getting on and off trains.”

Ms Pow told the jury that her fears mounted after she discovered Kirk had delivered the second letter by hand on May 27, 2020 and had posted a video on social media of him outside her house.

She opened the letter using gardening gloves and handed it straight to the police, meaning that she did not see its final page, which said she was ‘due a home visit later’.

She also found numerous references to herself on his blog and a picture of him holding a shotgun which was placed directly above two photos of her.

She said: "I literally felt sick. It seemed absolutely sinister. Why would somebody do something so calculating as to record a video about me outside my home?

“I was absolutely terrified for me and my children. It made me terribly upset and sick that somebody was thinking about me all the time and contemplating their next plan as to what to do with me.

“He talked about his plans A,B,C and D not having worked and about moving to plan E. I could only think and worry about what that could be.

“I wondered if it could involve a gun and whether I could be the victim of his plan to hold other people to account. I was terrified and could not sleep.”

The trial continues.