A 61-YEAR-OLD has been sentenced for sending anonymous homophobic text messages to a gay Bolton woman.

Lee Scattergood's conviction and suspended 12-week jail sentence has been welcomed by the victim, as well as a senior local police officer and one of the organisers of Bolton Pride.

He wrongly believed the woman was responsible for him losing his job at an estate agents, Bolton magistrates heard.

Scattergood sent the victim a long rambling threatening text message in February and made it appear the hatred had come from an upset bigoted neighbour.

He made offensive and disparaging references to the victim and her partner's new child.

Six months later, in September, he sent a second anonymous text message that said: "It's getting close to the time that you will be made to pay."

The victim told the court: "We had just brought a new baby home and it should have been a really happy time and the threats and worry that it caused absolutely ruined it.The content made me feel petrified."

She told the Bolton News afterwards: "We feel relieved by the conviction and I'm thrilled the magistrates took it serious enough to throw the book at him. The pre-sentence report recommended just 100 hours' community service but he got a lot more.

"The support from the police throughout the entire ordeal was incredible."

Detective Inspector Charlotte Cadden said: "The impact of this unknown person texting this stuff to them just had a massive impact on their life. They upgraded their security and even moved out of the family home for a bit.

"It really turned their lives upside down.

"Scattergood admitted in police interview that he knew it would cause a lot of distress.

"It was definitely done to play with people's psychological wellbeing."

Scattergood, of Clayton Street, Clayton, east Manchester, admitted improper use of public electronic communications network at Bolton Magistrates' Court last Wednesday.

He received a suspended 12 week jail term and will be supervised for 12 months while carrying out 180 hours of unpaid work. The court imposed a restraining order for a year.

Scattergood has to pay compensation of £500, a victim surcharge of £80, prosecution costs of £85 and a criminal courts charge of £150.

Det Insp Cadden said: "The sentence is really good.

"We take reports of hate crime very seriously and we will do everything we can to investigate it, and investigate it in the way the victim wants it to be dealt with.

"In this case we were able to get somebody charged and convicted and get a really good outcome for the victim in terms of the restraining order."

James Edgington, co-founder of Bolton Pride, said: "It's a great result and it's something that Bolton Pride stands for in terms of taking a stand against that kind of abuse. Hopefully it will encourage other people to come forward and feel that they can be heard and get their message across.

"We signpost people to reporting services and we work closely with the University of Bolton Students' Union, which is a hate crime drop-in centre."

Hate crime can be reported via the 101 police number or True Vision, the police-funded reporting portal that can be found at www.report-it.org.uk

MESSGAGE:

We ******* hate lesbians living round here especially fat ugly ones and with a ******* sprog ****** ruin the area well be warned we want you out and will do whatever it takes managed already to get your number keep checkin your brakes on that red tin can of yours *****