The councillor in charge of Warwickshire's children services will not face a criminal investigation over his claim the Pride movement has been "hijacked by groomers" – but the person who leaked it still might.

Cllr Wayne Briggs, Warwickshire County Council's portfolio holder for children & families, education and SEND, faces continued calls to resign having sent an official email to fellow councillors alleging that the Pride movement has been "hijacked by groomers and mentally ill men in dresses gyrating in front of children".

It was sent to council chair Cllr Dale Keeling in relation to his decision to fly the Pride flag over Old Shire Hall with all Reform UK members of Warwickshire County Council and the party's political assistant copied in.

Days later, a printout of the email was anonymously sent by post to the chair of Warwickshire Pride Daniel Browne. It included a handwritten note on the back claiming there were "more like this", encouraging Mr Browne to submit a Freedom of Information (FOI) request with the council.

The printout was published on Warwickshire Pride's Facebook page and reported to Warwickshire Police. A code of conduct complaint against Cllr Briggs has also been filed with Warwickshire County Council.

"I thought it was pretty horrific stuff to be coming from an elected representative," said Mr Browne.

"Although he said it was a private discussion, I'm not really sure anything is private these days.

"I wasn't surprised by the comments but I was shocked that they were written using a county council email address as opposed to a personal email or a verbal comment. It was really unprofessional.

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"I was going to file an FOI, I wrote it out, but before I pressed send I realised I just didn't have the headspace for it.

"I don't know who sent it. I don't know if they are trying to help or if they are playing a game and I am being used in some way, so I paused and didn't send it."

Warwickshire Police has confirmed the email itself has been designated as a "non-crime hate incident" with no further action to be taken, subject to that decision passing a review.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service also asked the force about information we received that police are still considering whether the sending of the printout amounts to malicious communication. We are awaiting response on that element but Mr Browne confirmed when asked that he had been told that by police.

"I couldn't understand it at first," said Mr Browne.

"My initial thought was that someone was trying to expose homophobia or transphobia, that they were trying to help.

"Thinking about it a bit more, perhaps someone did send it with the intent of causing distress. I just don't know.

"The police know the law better than I do, they have a job to do and I have to trust in what they are doing."

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Mr Browne is also calling on county council leader Cllr George Finch to investigate who sent the letter.

"Even if you take the nature of the email out of it, someone has still gone to the trouble of printing it out, writing a note and sending it to me," he said.

"That is a lot of effort to go to and it is a breach of trust. I am pretty sure that when Councillor Briggs sent that email, he wasn't worrying about someone printing it off and it becoming public."

Cllr Briggs, who stood by his comments, insisted it was a private email and rejected calls for his resignation in a statement at the time, declined to comment further.

Cllr Finch, who supported Cllr Briggs's stance and rejected calls for him to be removed from the cabinet at the time, has been contacted but has yet to indicate whether he will field questions.