by Charlie Spargo
A man has been jailed for nearly six months, and a two-year restraining order issued, after sending Facebook messages threatening the former chief reporter for Barrow s The Mail, Amy Fenton, according to the Press Gazette.
Fenton left her role in September 2020, after already needing police protection due “increasing levels of abuse, intimidation and threats”. It came after protests in Barrow surrounding an alleged grooming gang operating, and the subsequent police investigation that found “no evidence” to support this.
In June, when Fenton was still The Mail in Cumbria s chief reporter, she received death threats from Peter Cunliffe, 50, of Sandylands Promenade in Morecambe - among many others sent to her and other Mail staff who were reporting on the situation.
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Cunliffe pleaded guilty to six counts of sending by public communication (Facebook) an offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing message on Tuesday at Barrow-in-Furness Magistrates’ Court. The charges related to Fenton and two other victims.
He was given a total of 22 weeks in custody, ordered to pay three lots of £200 compensation, and issued with a two-year restraining order stopping him from contacting Fenton directly or indirectly and from using her name on social media.
Fenton tweeted: “The sentence and restraining order is welcome; glad it’s now been concluded.”
Leroy McCarthy, 25, of Osborne Road in Salford, was jailed for five months after admitting writing a threatening email of a sexual nature followed by three laughter emojis, under a Facebook post from the official Mail page correcting the name of a man convicted of rape in a previous report.
Tasty pies delivered to a Bolton food bank. by a panda KIND staff at Fieldings Porter Solicitors in Bolton have been doing their bit to combat food poverty in the town. The team donated 150 pies to the charity Bolton NICE, which works to support and empower vulnerable people in the area. The delicious treats included pies by Mr Kipling and Holland’s, and the delivery was overseen by Matthew, the Fielding Porter Panda mascot. The January 25 delivery was also a nod to National Pie Day. The generous gesture is part of Fieldings Porter’s ongoing charity efforts, which will run all year to mark the legal company’s 150th anniversary.