Partially-sighted woman in bomb threats jailed

SPartially-sighted Jacqueline Hustler, 48, was on bail for making bomb threats to five different Marks & Spencer stores and five hospitals when she picked up the phone again and threatened the Samaritans, a social worker and even her own mother.

In 2011, she had already faced court action after admitting making more than 200 hoax calls to emergency services in West Yorkshire.

Prosecutor Jo Shepherd told Bradford Crown Court how Hustler, who is estranged from her children and lives alone in Bradford, made the first barrage of calls on October 29 last year, when she rang M&S stores in Bridlington, Castle Donington, Kendal, Bradford and Derby.

Hustler whispered down the phone when staff at each store answered that there was a bomb outside the main door of the shop, in the form of a brown paper box.

Calling the Castle Donington store, she told them her name was Marcus and that the bomb would go off in half an hour, leading to an evacuation. At Kendal, Hustler told them her name was Marcus Cartwright, before bizarrely telling the staff member she had a young girl her with her who was unconscious. “It’s my daughter Linda. I’ve given her ecstasy tablets but she thought they were sweets. The ambulance needs to hurry up, she’s not breathing,” Miss Shepherd described Hustler telling the staff member.

The court also heard that she contacted several hospitals and charities. The contacts were a mixture of text messages to the hospital and calls, again threatening that there was a bomb in the vicinity.

Police traced the mobile phone number back to Hustler, who denied making the calls. But while on bail, she committed further offences on December 7 last year.

She again called the Bradford Royal Infirmary and Eccleshill Community Hospital, but also to voluntary charities the Samaritans in Bradford, Morley Street Centre and even a social worker who had worked with Hustler in the past.

Text messages read by an automated voice told terrified staff at the Eccleshill Community Hospital, which offers rehabilitation for patients over 65 who have come from hospital, that there was a bomb in the reception.

She also sent three text messages to her previous support worker telling her there was a bomb in her office. As well as ringing hospitals, she also made a four silent phone calls to 999 on December 7, Miss Shepherd told the court. She even sent her own mother, Margaret Foster, five text messages which read ‘pervert’.

Again, Hustler was arrested where she denied sending the messages or making calls but pleaded guilty when she appeared before Bradford magistrates in December.