In an attachment to one of the emails, Brookes was accused of "detrimental necromancy," which is defined as "the supposed practice of communicating with the dead, often to predict the future" and also known as black magic. Brookes appeared in court on Wednesday to testify at the trial of Mark Christopher, 58, Matthew Martin, 47, Shiza Harper, 45, and Sean Harper, 38, who are accused of conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to commit false imprisonment.
The court heard that certain documents the coroner was sent allegedly by the defendants were labeled as an "affidavit" containing references to "the penalty of perjury" and "agent for artificial person" and others were labeled as warrants "for seizure of goods and persons." All correspondence had come from a group who called themselves the "Federal Postal Court" or the "Court of the People."
Brookes tried to get help from his legal department of Essex county council after receiving the first letter, however they brushed it off as a scam and told the coroner to not engage. When he went to the Essex police after receiving a certain email, he was told "the risk was low."
Brookes told the court that the letters were mostly "gobbledygook, gibberish" and that "The grammar and syntax of it was written in a way that did not represent normal English," per BBC News. The prosecutor, Allister Walker, said on one of the 25-page letters was fingerprints and photocopies of "human matter" such as DNA, saliva, hair and blood.
Then, on April 19, Brookes received a final email which threatened he would be "held for a minimum of 45 days by police and thereafter to be sentenced." The next day, a group of four people broke into the coroner's courtroom wearing hi-vis jackets with symbols on them that matched symbols in the letters. Brookes was not there at the time, but his colleague Michelle Brown was. She told the court that Christopher, the alleged leader of the group, was reading from a script and threatened to come to her and Brookes' respective houses if they did not surrender to the court. She also said that Martin assaulted a security guard during the incident.
Brookes stated that Brown had "warned" him of the break-in and told him "These are the people who are in that letter, and they are coming to get you." He stated through tears: "Because of what she said I turned around and started driving home as fast as I could because I was fearful for the safety of my family. I pulled over, in fact, because I was a bit upset."
Walker called the group of defendants an "anti-establishment cult" who wanted to subject Brookes to "corporal punishment." Christopher was thought to be the "chief judge" of the "Court of the People" who had "self-conferred" legal powers and advertised for people to join them and pay a subscription fee. He said the "cult" had a "significant following" online and their mission was to "close down the courts" in Essex, with their first target being the coroner. The trial is ongoing.
