Bizarre night shamed ex-MP Jared O'Mara's topless employee asked for cigarettes in return for Star interview

Staff at The Star were already aware of the growing dysfunction within Jared O’Mara’s constituency office when two of its reporters were asked to make a late-night visit to his Chief of Staff’s home, with the promise of an exclusive interview if they turned up with a packet of cigarettes.

In the hours running up to the bizarre interview on July 23, 2019, Gareth Arnold – O’Mara’s short-lived Chief of Staff, friend and eventual co-defendant – had taken over the MP’s Twitter account, using it as a platform on which to announce his resignation and launch into a foul-mouthed tirade, branding O’Mara a ‘selfish, degenerate p****’ and claiming the people of Sheffield Hallam deserved better.

The Star reporters working on that balmy summer’s evening, when, thanks to Arnold, O'Mara’s conduct had once again become national news, were dispatched to his home. Upon arrival, they found Arnold topless and swigging cider; and subsequently handed over the Benson & Hedges he requested.

The circumstances surrounding their meeting with Arnold - along with his shrine to the Royal Family in his front room – made for an extremely unforgettable evening.

During the course of the interview, the contents of which were used for The Star's front page splash the following day, Arnold said he had resigned because ‘he could no longer stand by and watch a man engage in such depraved behaviour with such contempt for constituents in Sheffield Hallam’.

According to his contract – which was shown to jurors in their trial – Arnold’s role as O’Mara’s Chief of Staff had begun less than eight weeks earlier on June 1, 2019. And in the intervening period he helped O’Mara to submit fake expense claims totalling thousands of pounds to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, requesting reimbursement for services from a ‘fictitious’ organisation called ‘Confident about Autism South Yorkshire’. He then reported O’Mara to South Yorkshire Police over the fraudulent invoices.

Dark cloud of controversy

O’Mara, who has cerebral palsy and autism, stepped down as Sheffield Hallam’s MP just a few weeks later under a dark cloud of controversy – with tribunal proceedings involving former staff members he had either sacked or had quit pending, and a growing frustration among a number of Sheffield Hallam constituents who had, effectively, been unrepresented in several crucial Brexit votes during what was arguably one of the most fractious and turbulent times in Britain’s political history.

I was one of the almost 70,000 Hallam constituents left without an MP during much of O’Mara’s tenure, and I have to admit I was relieved when he resigned. It’s hard to have faith in a democratic system when one of its elected representatives abuses their position in such a manner.

And that was before details of the fraud charges O’Mara was facing – the result of which has today (Thursday, February 9) seen him jailed for four years – and the ‘extensive’ cocaine habit that fuelled his criminality had emerged.

But in my role covering Sheffield court cases, keeping an open mind and endeavouring to remain impartial is essential. I covered all but one day of O’Mara and Arnold’s 17-day trial at Leeds Crown Court, and carefully noted down the evidence and the arguments put forward by both prosecution and defence counsel. I devoted the exact same number of articles to the prosecution and defence cases, and spent a day Tweeting along to both sides of the case.

‘Entirely disingenuous’ apology

O’Mara opted not to give evidence, which isn’t as rare as you might think; but after he was convicted I thought –and frankly, hoped – his mitigation might be centred around remorse and contrition.

But instead of addressing or apologising for his attempts to make away with over £50,000 of taxpayers’ money, the closest O’Mara got to an apology was the following statement through his barrister, Mark Kelly KC: “He wants to apologise to his constituents for his failure to resign in October 2017 when he felt that he was being hounded by the media…he felt under pressure by the media for the circumstances that came to light after he became a MP.”

Mr Kelly was seemingly referring to the criticism levelled at O’Mara, over homophobic, xenophobic and misogynistic comments he made online a decade earlier, which were unearthed after he became Sheffield Hallam’s MP, leading to him having the Labour whip removed.

Judge Tom Bayliss KC branded his apology as ‘entirely disingenuous’. He told O’Mara: "You must have realised early on that you were wholly unsuited to the role; but you carried on regardless...drawing a salary but doing little or no parliamentary work.”

It could have been so different

While O’Mara’s legacy will now be his four-year prison sentence for his unsuccessful attempt to spend thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money on drink and drugs, one of the most disappointing aspects of the sorry affair is that he not only squandered and abused the trust Sheffield Hallam constituents placed in him; but he also wasted the opportunity he was given to represent our wonderful city and do something incredible.

He was only the third person with cerebral palsy to be elected to Parliament – and despite being a relatively unknown candidate – managed to dethrone Nick Clegg, the former deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats, effectively forcing his resignation as head of the party.

It was undoubtedly one of the shocks of the 2017 general election, and on the night of the count, rumours about O’Mara having to dash out to buy a suit and/or having to borrow his dad’s suit were doing the rounds.

O’Mara could have used the chance Sheffielders took on him to further his work as a disability campaigner and attempt to make Parliament more accessible for people with disabilities. He could have used his platform to fight for his constituents, to prove that you don’t have to have been in politics for years or have gone through the traditional routes to make it into the House of Commons.

Instead, he cynically used his position - and disability – to commit fraud, and, in my view, showed contempt for the voters who elected him. It could have been so different.

*O’Mara, aged 41, of Walker Close, Grenoside and 30-year-old Arnold of School Lane, Dronfield, were convicted of six and three counts of fraud, respectively after a trial.

O’Mara was cleared of two counts of fraud, while Arnold was cleared of three.

During a sentencing hearing at Leeds Crown Court on February 9, O’Mara was jailed for four years and Arnold was sentenced to 15 months’ custody, suspended for two years.