A TRURO city councillor has been found in breach of the council’s code of conduct after accusing the chairman of Cornwall Council of being a bully and homophobic. If Cllr Sam Rabey does not apologise to Cllr Rob Nolan within the specified time period he will be censured.

On June 18, Cllr Rabey – Independent member for Moresk & Trehaverne ward – was found to have breached the council code of conduct following an investigation by Cornwall Council legal officer Simon Mansell. He was given 28 days from the date of the notice to apologise to Cllr Nolan, the Liberal Democrat member for Boscawen & Redannick ward, who was elected chair of Cornwall Council last month. If that doesn’t happen, Cllr Rabey will be censured by the city council.

The complaint relates to comments made on Facebook accusing Cllr Nolan of bullying and homophobia. The notice states: “The subject member [Cllr Rabey] is challenged over this on the basis that he has no evidence, to which the subject member then tries to link his accusation to recent press stories about him before being told by a third party, ‘you are on rocky territory’.”

No specific response was received by Cllr Rabey. However, in an exchange of emails when the complaint was initially processed, he also accused officers in legal services of being homophobic. When we asked Cllr Rabey for a response to the conduct breach, he replied: “No comment.”

Cllr Nolan told us: “I was surprised to read Sam Rabey’s accusations on Facebook. I’m neither a bully nor homophobic. The only times I have spoken to Sam have been exchanging polite chit-chat going in and out of council meetings.

“But I gather he also accused the legal team at County Hall that were investigating him of being homophobic. So these are accusations that he carelessly throws around, not caring how upsetting they are to people he accuses.”

In May, Cllr Rabey, the then deputy mayor of Truro, was banned by the Diocese of Truro from the city’s cathedral and its grounds due to safeguarding concerns. A briefing given to staff and volunteers was “being shared under safeguarding with the intention of managing and reducing risk of harm”. No details of the specific reasons for the Diocese’s concerns were revealed.

David Rodda, Truro City Council’s clerk, said at the time: “Our position is that he’s eligible to stand as a councillor, that the council will elect its mayor on Monday, May 12, and we are aware of the cathedral’s position and will act accordingly depending on the outcome of the election of mayor. They’ve taken a position based on information they have and we’ll have to act accordingly.

“Our safeguarding policy’s in place, which states that the mayor, deputy mayor and senior officers will be DBS checked. We take safeguarding seriously and will act in accordance with our policy.” Cllr Rabey was not elected as mayor or re-elected as deputy mayor at the city council meeting on May 12.

The code of conduct report includes comment from an “independent person”, who was part of the investigation, stating: “There appears to be little background and detail provided in relation to the complaint itself (I have been sent copies of emails from Simon Mansell from Cllr Rabey concerning accusations relating to Simon Mansell and Matthew Stokes [another legal officer at Cornwall Council], most of which I believe to be irrelevant to this complaint) but I note from reading them that Cllr Rabey appears to admit he did make comments about Cllr Nolan, then says he used a private Facebook page for his own opinions and later states he, ‘openly accused someone of something’ (emails dated May 27).

“If Cllr Rabey did make those comments on his own and another councillor’s Facebook page, whilst acting in his official capacity, without any evidence to back them up, that would, on balance, appear to support the breaches of the code as alleged.”

It was found that Cllr Rabey was indeed acting in his official capacity as “a reasonable person would view the profile picture of the subject member and then looking for them online will see that their profile then sets out that they are a city councillor for Trehaverne”.

The report adds: “Whilst the subject member has not responded to explain his motives for calling the complainant homophobic, this is a serious, personal accusation to make and is stating that the complainant is guilty of a hate crime.”

The code of conduct decision is on the agenda for the next meeting of Truro City Council on Monday, July 28.