Carluke man jailed for making Cheryl Cole death threats and threatening to blow up Celtic Park

A man who threatened to kill singer Cheryl Cole and blow up a football stadium was jailed for two years today.

Alan Linton, 32, also admitted threatening to carry out a terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport and to kill young girls in a primary school.

Judge Lady Smith said a series of threatening letters sent by Linton, from Carluke, Lanarkshire, last year must have been "very alarming and upsetting" for those who received them, as she jailed him at the High Court in Edinburgh.

She told him: "The threats you made were very upsetting and distressing and could not be dismissed out of hand."

She singled out the letter to Celtic Football Club and to the primary school.

She said: "In the letter to Celtic, you were threatening to blow it up, perpetrate terrible things that would happen to supporters of Celtic Football Club, referring particularly to their religious persuasion."

The letter warned that supporters' "flesh would rise up", Lady Smith told the court, leaving people and priests "screaming".

The letter to the school saw him threaten to "splatter the blood" of young girl pupils all over the playground, according to the judge.

She also voiced concern over his threat to "launch a terrorist attack" on Glasgow Airport, given that it was targeted by would-be bombers in 2007.

The letter to the airport was signed "DOS", which the court had previously been told stands for Disciple of Satan.

The court had heard that a letter to the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow included the threat to kill singer Cole.

A letter to St Athanasius Church in Carluke also contained threats to blow it up.

A further letter was written to an Asda store in Newmains, Lanarkshire, last May, threatening to blow it up.

A Scottish newspaper also received a letter from Linton threatening to kill the then Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc.

Linton had already admitted sending seven threatening letters between the start of April and June 25 last year.

He was identified through his fingerprints, which were on the letters, and he admitted sending them when confronted by police.

A report examining the future risk posed by Linton found there was a "high likelihood" that he would send further letters again in the future.

Linton, who has a previous conviction for a sexually aggravated breach of the peace, was already receiving treatment for his mental health condition and would visit Wishaw Hospital when he found himself struggling to cope.

The court heard in mitigation that he understood his actions were wrong and that there were victims in the form of the people who had to open the letters.

In sentencing, Lady Smith said that two months of the sentence was down to the religious aggravation of the offence.