Jail for Fife OAP who threatened to kill Prime Minister

A Fife woman in her 70s has been jailed for almost four years for sending death threats to the Prime Minister, emailing bomb threats and sending white powder to Levenmouth Police Station.

Isabella Jackson, 72, attends Kirkcaldy sheriff court (Pic: George McLuskie)

Iabella Jackson, of Braehead Gardens, Buckhaven, was jailed at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court today

Police officers who led the investigation into her threats welcomed the sentence.

Detective Chief Inspector Kenny Armstrong of the Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism Unit said Jackson’s actions were reprehensible.

He said: “I am at a loss as to why an elderly woman should choose to carry out this campaign of threats and malice. The time, effort, cost and resources that have been put into dealing with each threat she made has been sizeable and took officers and emergency services partners away from dealing with genuine incidents.’

Jackson has previously served a two year jail term for threatening to blow up a plane carrying the then President, Barack Obama.
She admitted a series of charges at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, and will now serve a further 45 months behind bars over the threats which started only months after she was released from prison from her previous sentence.

A sheriff told her that her “twisted mind” had caused her to “cause the utmost disruption from the comfort of her sofa”.

On November 24, 2014 Jackson sent an e-mail from her home in Buckhaven to aides of then-Home Secretary Theresa May, threatening to kill the senior politician.

An allegation that she sent images and details of bombs, explosives and violence in a string of other emails was deleted by the prosecution.

On January 4, Jackson – on bail for the Theresa May threats – made bomb threats against Harrods and Kings Cross Station in London and Edinburgh Airport.

The court heard that she “sent inforamtion with the intent of inducing in them a false belief that a bomb or other thing likely to explode or ignite” was present at the upmarket retailer as well as at the two transport hubs.

She the posted a packet of white powder with a card with the word “death” written on it to Levenmouth CID office in Methil, sparking a major incident. Firefighters and ambulances rushed to the scene and a major investigation was launched which led to her.

Between making threats Jackson was also involved in a bizarre crime at Fife Council’s HQ in Glenrothes.

The court was told that “for the purposes of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety” to a fellow resident in her care home she sent a message she knew to be false stating that the woman had died in 2015.

Sheriff Grant McCulloch said he was satisfied that her behaviour merited a further custodial sentence.

He said: “It is a deliberate act of a twisted mind, quite content to cause the utmost disruption from the comfort of your own sofa.”

DCI Armstrong said: ‘‘The time, effort, cost and resources that have been put into dealing with each threat she made has been sizeable and took officers and emergency services partners away from dealing with genuine incidents.

“They all happened alongside a backdrop of heightened security, with the UK threat level for international terrorism at the time at severe.

“Even when her laptop and phone were seized, she went on to disrupt policing by sending a suspicious package to her local station and still managed to email bomb threats.

‘‘She has shown no remorse nor given any sort of explanation for her actions, but I am pleased that she has accepted responsibility, resulting in her conviction.”