Woman jailed over drunken TikTok inciting violence against judge who ordered destruction of her dangerous dog

Melissa Thorp, 50, named both the judge and the police officer who investigated three attacks by her Belgian Malinois as “targets” in her drunken TikTok rants, saying they “needed to lose someone or something close to them”, Leeds Crown Court heard.  

She also included “information about where the judge and the officer worked” which “put each of them in very real danger” and instructed her followers to “share (the post) far and wide”.

Thorp, who was incensed that the judge had ordered the destruction of her beloved pet Blu, later deleted the post once she’d “sobered up”, but it had already been viewed by people who reported it to police.

Thorp, who had been working as a general assistant at a creamery in the Yorkshire Dales, was duly arrested and charged with sending a communication threatening death or serious harm. 

She admitted the offence which put her in breach of an 18-month suspended prison sentence imposed for the original offences, namely three counts of being the owner in charge of a dangerous, out-of-control dog which caused injury to two of the three victims. 

Those offences occurred last year when, in separate incidents, the “German Shepherd-type dog”, which was unmuzzled, bit a rambler in the Dales, a train conductor in Skipton and a woman in Settle town centre, knocking her into the road.

When the suspended sentence and destruction order were imposed at a separate court in April this year, Thorp, a mother-of-one, had tearfully pleaded with the then sentencing judge not to order the destruction of her beloved pet whom she described as “my best friend”.

But the judge told that Thorp that she was not a “fit and proper person (to own a dog).”

Despite Thorp being spared jail on that occasion, she was furious at the loss of her cherished pet and being banned from keeping dogs for 10 years.

Lydia Carroll, prosecuting at yesterday’s hearing at Leeds Crown Court, said that on July 1 this year, just a few months after Thorp received the suspended sentence, a woman browsing TikTok spotted the disturbing TikTok post. 

She told a friend who reported it to police and they brought Thorp in for questioning. Thorp told officers she was “paralytic” when posting the comments after drinking a bottle-and-a-half of vodka, smoking cannabis and taking some pills at a friend’s house.

She said she was distraught at the time because she had just learnt that Blu had been put down. 

Thorp, formerly of Mill Close, Settle, but lately of Keswick Drive, Castleford, said she had deleted the post 12 hours later after “sobering up” and that she had “no intention for anyone to be killed” or harmed.

Ms Carroll said that by including “information about where the judge and the officer worked” in the TikTok post, Thorp had “increased the risk” of their being targeted.

Thorp’s online rant included comments about Blu being “my whole life” and the bizarre comment “Dogs against humans”.

She railed against the loss of “innocent lives like Blu and XL Bullies” that had been “executed by the same Government regime”, adding: “The humans need to be punished. Justice to my brave Belgian Malinois who died for the corrupt British government.”

Thorp, a mother-of-one, had lived a somewhat chequered life, having notched up 21 offences on a criminal record dating back over 30 years. Her rap sheet included a previous malicious-communications offence, attempted robbery, carrying an offensive weapon, affray, threatening behaviour and criminal damage.

Defence barrister Kelleigh Lodge said Thorp had mental-health issues and had “struggled with alcohol in the past”.

“On (the day in question) she was in a very bad state emotionally and she had gone round to her friend’s house for support but consumed alcohol that made the situation a bit worse,” added Ms Lodge.

“She had no intention of anything being carried out and didn’t want any harm coming to the two people mentioned, but she does accept that others could have interpreted the message differently.”

Judge Kate Rayfield told Thorp that although the dog was “of real emotional support to you in respect of your poor mental health”, her behaviour on TikTok was “wholly unacceptable”. 

 She added: “Whilst under the influence of alcohol, you posted TikToks publicly, meaning that anyone could see them. 

“In them, you incited violence against both the police officer who investigated the Dangerous Dog Act offences and the judge who presided over the Crown Court proceedings which resulted.  

“You specifically named each of them, thereby making them direct targets for anyone who followed up on your pleas that they ‘needed to lose someone or something close to them’.  You put each of them in very real danger that evening.

“You say that you did not intend any harm to come to anyone but that is little comfort to those people who were named as targets.  

“They each knew you were capable of violence because of your previous convictions and regardless of your personal intentions, from the point you posted the TikToks publicly with an instruction to share far and wide, it was no longer only your intentions that were important; it was the intentions of anyone who answered your call to arms.”

Ms Rayfield added: Both the police officer and the judge were simply doing their jobs.  The person responsible for your dog being put down is you, because you persisted in taking it out in public without a muzzle which was directly against the police advice you were given after it bit the first person.  

“The dog went (on) to bite three more people before the destruction order was made. It beggars belief that you sought to place the blame on those people who were purely carrying out their professional duty to protect the public from further acts of harm; something that you yourself should have been doing as a responsible dog owner.

“To make threats against those who administer and uphold the law and to incite violence against them is extremely serious and the message must go out that anyone who conducts themselves in this way will go immediately to prison.”

Thorp was jailed for two years and two months for the malicious communication and breaching the suspended sentence.