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The trial of Ashfield Council’s deputy leader – accused of pretending his neighbour had chased him with a foot-and-a-half-long carving knife – has heard he held ‘’council meetings’ in his hot tub during lockdown.

The trial at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court heard Coun Tom Hollis was filmed by his neighbour's wife aggressively shouting over a 6ft fence on Windmill Close, Huthwaite, before making the 999 call, on May 16, 2020.

Hollis, Ashfield Independents’ Ashfield Council member for Huthwaite & Brierley and Nottinghamshire Council member for Sutton West, denies two counts of harassment without violence.

Errol Ballentyne, for Hollis, said none of the defendant's visitors got into the hot tub in his back garden during the meetings and he was entitled to hold meetings as a key worker.

He told the witness: “You were seeking to get a vendetta going to get rid of Hollis in his career.”

She replied she was ‘apolitical’, adding: “I didn't think a hot tub meeting with music was appropriate.”

She denied ‘doing everything she could to antagonise him’.

The trial heard 29-year-old Hollis, now of Yew Tree Drive, Huthwaite, accused her husband of being a paedophile on several occasions and they were visited by police after Hollis complained about noise and anti-social behaviour.

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She said days after giving birth to her second child, Hollis: “I nearly had the baby. My sister was your midwife.”

The woman said: “I was hoping I had misheard him. I work for the NHS and I know how serious a breach of confidentiality can be.”

After she received a letter from him on official council paper, dated May 6, 2020, she asked him not to correspond with her again.

However, Hollis replied saying he was unhappy about her tone and quoting the Bible.

When asked why she thought he signed it as ‘deputy leader of the council’, she replied: “Intimidation.”

She told the trial: “It totally changed our lives as a family. We were no longer happy to live in that home. I didn't feel I could protect my children – or me or my husband.”

The trial heard Hollis threatened to build a two-feet-high wall around their property before parking a caravan with gas canisters nearby and singing Caravan of Love, by The Housemartins.

Mark Fielding, prosecuting, said: “The Crown would say this is clear evidence of harassment. He abused his position as councillor.”

The trial continues.

Ashfield Council deputy leader had lockdown hot tub meetings, harassment trial told