A VETERAN town councillor standing for re-election for a seventh term woke to discover a death threat scrawled on the side of his house.

John Marr was horrified when he found someone had been into his garden overnight on Tuesday and daubed the words ‘step down or die’ across his kitchen window in ink or paint.

The 81-year-old, of Spennymoor, County Durham, said: “It is a sick person that would do something like this and they don’t know me very well if they think a threat will work, they won’t stop me standing.”

Cllr Marr’s daughter Sandra and granddaughter Victoria were the first to spot the big black letters when they called at his home in Gerard Street, with two of his great granddaughters.

Mrs Hall said: “Victoria was really upset and her first thought was ‘wash it off so he doesn’t see’ but we left it so we could show police.

“She was in tears and one of the girls, who can read now, was asking about it. It is a horrible thing to do.”

The Labour stalwart became a member of Spennymoor Town Council in May 1991 and has held various positions including that of leader and town mayor for the millennium.

Cllr Marr is certain, because of the wording and as he has an election poster in the next window, that the message was politically motivated ahead of next week’s town council election.

He believes it was done, between 8.15pm on Tuesday and 10am on Wednesday, while he was at a Spennymoor Town FC match or in bed and said it left him feeling more angry than frightened.

He said: “They’ve had to come through my gates, been onto my property and brought something with them to do this, probably when it was dark.”

Cllr Marr lost his wife of 57 years Irene in December 2015, his pet dog died and he has had health problems so Mrs Hall was not keen on him standing for re-election.

“I didn’t really want him to try again but he cares about the town, this threat to a man like that has made me really angry,” she said.

Cllr Marr’s family reported the matter to police.

A spokesperson for Durham police said: “We are currently investigating an incident of criminal damage to a house in Spennymoor which was reported to us on Wednesday, April 26.”

Anyone with information is asked to call 101 quoting incident 89 of April 26.