A Tory candidate has condemned the "twisted hate-consumed" vandals who flooded her parents' garden with more than 1,000 litres of oil.
Charlotte Leslie, who is seeking to return as MP for Bristol North West, said the vandals had drilled a hole in the oil tank at her family home - draining 1,137 litres - a year's supply of heating oil - into the garden. She described the vandals as acting "like the spoiled children of a careless millionaire."
Leslie voted in favour of fracking in the House of Commons in January. Shortly afterwards her Bristol office was vandalised with graffiti, with vandals spray paining "fracking whore" on her signage.
It is believed the attack happened at the same time that cars belonging to Leslie and her 70-year-old father Ian were defaced with the words "Tory scum" and "media hungry", which were spray-painted across the doors on Friday.
Tory candidate Charlotte Leslie has condemned a "twisted" vandalism attack on her family home and vehicle by anti-fracking campaigners
Anti-fracking anarchists have apparently claimed responsibility for the attacks in a blog post signed by "Thatcher's children".
Leslie said the spilt oil will kill anything growing nearby and so she could "only laugh" if the attack was perpetrated by people who were against fracking .
But she said the most upsetting thing about it was that people were dying for the cause of democracy in Syria, a country she visited shortly before the war, but the vandals had apparently "forgotten the luxury" of Britain's political system.
Leslie next to her car that was spray painted with the words 'Tory scum'
In a letter published by the Telegraph, she wrote: "So beyond the obvious shock of finding my car and my parents' cars and property vandalised last week, this is the thing that has been most upsetting - to see not a car or property defaced, but a precious system of democracy for which people are at this minute dying - taken for granted and defaced by those who are so privileged that they have forgotten the luxury of the political system in which they operate, and take for granted, like the spoiled children of a careless millionaire.
"The right of people to stand against me as a prospective MP, their right to challenge my beliefs and record, their right to criticise me and yes, even to inundate the constituency with deliberately misleading leaflets about me, is a right for which I would like to think I would fight and die - because I have seen the alternative."
Leslie went on to say that while the vandals responsible for the attack needed to be punished, they also deserve pity as a "life consumed with hatred is seldom a happy one".
She wrote that if the vandals had taken issue with her vote on fracking, "I'm afraid I can only laugh at them".
In the blog post, hosted on a website entitled "ACT FOR FREEDOM NOW!", anti-fracking anarchists attacked "wealthy, over privileged" Leslie.
The post reads: "Canvassing cars were our canvas as we scratched and spraypainted, leaving "Media hungry Tory scum" and a big circled A [the symbol for anarchy] as a contribution to her self obsessed publicity election drive.
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"Tires were punctured to put a brake on the race further to the right. next up was bit of drilling for domestic heating fuel and an oil spill all over the well kept garden.
"Because fracking is a dirty business and those who support such an industry should really think about ecological consequences. And also because people should not be forced by government's poverty policies to choose between having heating or food.
"People like Charlotte Leslie declare moral outrage at such "vandalism" and denounce as unfair attacking her home. But compare the damage caused by this action to the extent of the damage to people's homes and lives caused by such greedy, lying politicians every day. You'll see there is no comparison. What is really shocking is that actions like this don't happen more..."
Avon and Somerset police officers are investigating the vandalism and are appealing with anyone with information on it to contact them.
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