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A PROMINENT Welsh politician has been savaged by a crown court judge for ‘abusing’ her public position.

Helen Mary Jones, Plaid’s candidate in the Llanelli constituency, was criticised for re-tweeting a highly inappropriate message during an on-going murder trial.

The politician was summoned before Swansea Crown Court yesterday, to hear QC Paul Thomas say she had ‘abused her power’ in a very irresponsible manner, and furthermore set a ‘very poor example to others’.

Ms Jones had re-tweeted a comment by a prominent domestic abuse campaigner, hoping that a defendant in a murder trial would be sent to jail.

But the trial was still on-going against Anthony Williams, accused of killing his wife, at the time of both tweets.

The QC said that any of Helen Mary Jones’s 8,000 twitter followers could potentially have been a member of the jury in the murder case, and thus be influenced by her actions.

He further said that her actions could have meant the cancelling of the trial, costing tens of thousands to the Welsh taxpayers.

The trial ended with the defendant sentenced to five years imprisonment in the grounds of diminished responsibility.

In court, Helen Mary Jones accepted full responsibility for her mistake and apologised to the judge for her actions.

Gwlad leader Gwyn Wigley Evans said it beggared belief that one of Plaid’s senior politicians had acted in such an irresponsible manner.

He said the party had been screaming from the rooftops about Neil McEvoy ‘abusing’ his position in different ways in the Senedd, without any real substance to any of the charges against him.

‘We’ve now got a real, concrete example of one of their most experienced politicians actually abusing their position – so let’s see if the party get round to actually addressing the problem in their own ranks.’

‘But don’t hold your breath, this will be swept under the carpet again by them again most probably. ‘