'I will burn your school to the ground' - Hartlepool woman's vile threats to her former headteacher and his family

Hollie Hay, 18, of Carlisle Street, Hartlepool, wrote the messages – which also included sickening threats against his family – after learning about the school’s recent success.

A court heard how she resented the way she felt she had been treated at the school.

Hay pleaded guilty to harassment and two charges of resisting a police officer at an earlier appearance and returned to Teesside Magistrates’ Court to learn her fate.

Lynne Dalton, prosecuting, said in the first message, which was received at the school earlier this year, Hay threatened to enter the premises and slit the throat of the head and another man and warned that if he tried to leave “I will follow you home and kill your family”.

More emails were sent to his personal work address that evening.

One said “I will burn your school to the ground” and made further threats against his wife while another read “I am coming for you, I know where you live, I will kill your family”.

Another message the following day stated: “You will all die, I am coming for you, I know where you live.”

Further messages over the next nine days included threats against both the victim and his family and to burn the school down.

The Mail has decided not to name the head or to disclose the most extreme contents of the emails.

In a victim impact statement, the headteacher said: “I believed these threats to be genuine. As a result I had to have my family stay out of our home address to protect them. I have had cameras installed in our home.”

Neil Taylor, who represented Hay in court, said: “This is one of the saddest cases I have ever dealt with.”

He said Hay had serious mental health issues and could not leave her home without one of her parents.

Mr Taylor added: “I have umpteen letters from the school to her mother, from the doctor, from mental health practitioners, dealing with her problems.”

Although he accepted the threats were “awful”, they had been entirely hollow and he continued: "Her father is her full-time carer. He takes her out.

"She will not leave the house on her own. She was never going to leave her home, the acts were never going to be carried out."

Mr Taylor also said: “She was upset at the way she was treated, at the way they dealt with it.”

He told the court Hay was now receiving help with her mental health problems and urged magistrates to go along with a pre-sentence report recommending a lengthy period of probation with additional rehabilitation activity.

"She is remorseful, she is upset and she is very sorry,” he said.

Chairman of the bench Pam Ross told Hay magistrates had seriously considered sending her to prison.

She said: “We were looking at 18 months, brought down to 12 months because of your guilty pleas.

"But if we send you to prison, you are not going to get the help you clearly need.”

Hay was given a two-year probation order with 40 days’ rehabilitation activity, ordered to pay £500 compensation and made subject to a restraining order.