By James Simons
An old lady of 81 has been jailed for sending packages containing hoax toxic substances to Iain Duncan Smith and Epping Forest District Council offices.
She then sparked another alert on July 15, 2015, when she sent a package containing sugar to the House of Commons, intending the condiment to be mistaken for a deadly poison.
Shirley Freed, from Walthamstow, East London was sentenced to 15 months in jail at Snaresbrook Crown Court today.
Only last month, she was found guilty of at the same court for two counts of sending a hoax noxious substance, contrary to Section 114 of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001. Disgracefully, this old lady who who lacks the wisdom expected of a pensioner her age, showed the stupidity and ill mind expected of a teenage idiot by failing to consider the consequences of her actions.
A shocked court court heard how a package containing sugar was delivered to the offices of Epping Forest District Council in September 2014.
“She went to the toilet and she started to scrub her hands and arms.
‘She was terrified – she did not know what she had been exposed to.’
The horrifying incident was immediately reported to police who after seeing evidence from an investigation by council staff noticed similarities in the handwriting on letters sent over the preceding 18 months. The similarities on the writing provided a perfect match to that of the pensioner’s benefits paperwork.
The court heard how the foolish pensioner addressed the envelope to Conservatives MP for Chingford and Woodford Green Iain Duncan Smith alongside a message that read: “A state of unbelievable anguish, pain and torment exceeding anything ever known in this life known as hell.
“There is no annihilation. There is no reincarnation. There is no escape.”
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That envelope also contained a Daily Mail article featuring Mr Duncan Smith but was intercepted by the agency responsible for screening all incoming mail.
Mitigating, her defense lawyer, Ciara McElvogue, told the court that her client was “terrified at the prospect of dying in prison”.
“She fully acknowledges that sending letters and packages of this kind can cause an incredible amount of distress to employees in the council, House of Commons and the mail agencies who open them,” she added.
Attempting to sway the court to prevent a jail sentence, she expressed “strong concerns about how she would cope in prison” given the recent health problems which prevented earlier appearances in court.
Judge David Radford told Freed he could not ignore the fact she had received a 51-week suspended sentence in 2006 for sending similar parcels to Tony Blair and his family.
He said: “I am afraid that I have come to the conclusion that, notwithstanding the fact that you are 81-years-old and have health problems, that I simply cannot repeat that which occurred in 2006 when you were given a suspended sentence for similar behavior than on this occasion.
“As a matter of mercy, and having regard to your age, I will make sure that the sentences are as short as they otherwise would be.
“But, I am afraid my public duty is as such that – despite your age – I have to sentence you to immediate custody.“It gives me absolutely no pleasure to have to do so.
How right the judge was. The law applies to everyone, and age cannot be a bar to justice. This woman obviously at her age still lacks maturity and common sense, and therefore deserves the punishment she got. How she copes in jail is her problem, she should have thought of that before committing the offense.
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