Sacked Yorkshire nursery worker who threatened to 'slit the throats' of staff jailed

Disgruntled Stacey Gibson, 33, chillingly told the ex-owner of Pebbles Nursery and Pre-School: "I will kill you and your husband."

Leeds Crown Court heard how she had been originally fired from her post at the business for gross misconduct back in December 2018. In the years that followed, she was jailed twice for making threats to staff and the nursery as part of her long-standing 'vendetta' against them.

But on October 8 last year, just three days after being released from prison, she barraged the ex-owner with a series of worrying new threats over Facebook.

The messages read: "I will burn your house down", "I will kill you and your husband", "I am capable of killing you" and "I have a knife ready for you".

Gibson also sent a message on Facebook directly to the nursery, telling them she was watching the staff and was going to "burn it to the ground".

Days later, and just an hour before she was arrested at St George's Crypt in Leeds city centre where she was staying, she sent an email which read: "I will come to the nursery and kill you all."

Gibson later admitted two counts of making threats to kill, two breaches of her restraining order, making a threat of criminal damage and harassment.

Judge Tahir Khan KC said at her sentencing hearing on Friday: "It was a vendetta you were pursuing against anyone associated with Pebbles Nursery. It's clear that your behaviour was persistent over a long period of time. You were determined to carry on making threats."

Stacey Gibson was jailed in March 2020 for 18 months and then again in April 2021 for a further 18 months for similar offences against the former owner and staff.

Prosecutor Nick Aldington said she was also given a restraining order not to contact the workers or go near the building in Yeadon. The court heard how she made a string of new threats against the ex-owners of the business after they had ignored her attempts to contact them in October.

Her initial message on Facebook read I'm sorry", and after receiving no reply, she sent another five days later saying "hello".

The recipient then replied saying she was going to call the police and wanted Gibson to cease contact But between October 28 and 30, Gibson sent a further 45 messages, with at least 20 of them making threats to the woman and her husband.

She gave a no-comment interview with police before entering guilty pleas to the charges and appeared for her sentencing via video link. A victim impact statement from the former owner said Gibson's conduct in recent years had forced her to sell the nursery. She also said she was still wary of being out alone in case Gibson was watching her.

Eddison Flint, defending Gibson, said: "It's quite a sad case. She is clearly mentally unwell, but there is starting to be an appreciation of the impact this has caused. This is now her third set of offending against the nursery. She gets locked up, gets released and re-offends.

"She has no stable accommodation, and she felt she had no choice but to go back to prison. It's clear sending her to prison and releasing her with limited support is simply not working."