A businessman who fired pictures at a mum and kids beforehand made threats of violence towards creator JK Rowling and her household.
Paul Ritchie is awaiting sentence after terrifying Emma Davis and 4 children with what turned out to be a paintball gun, and in addition battering her canine.
He has served time for sending threatening emails to UK politicians together with former Home of Commons speaker John Bercow, ex-Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn, former house secretary Amber Rudd and SNP Westminster chief Ian Blackford.
The Sunday Mail can reveal Ritchie, 36, of Dolphinton, Lanarkshire, dodged a jail stretch after focusing on Rowling, Anglican Bishop of Ripon Helen Hartley and 4 others with threatening messages.
Ritchie, who runs a property providers reserving web site, pleaded responsible to 6 prices below the Communications Act 2003. He appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Courtroom final yr and was positioned below supervision for 2 years and ordered to have interaction with psychological well being providers.
Ritchie was additionally handed a six-month digital tag.
However solely per week later he was jailed for 12 months for sending what an English choose known as “vile” emails to politicians in 2019.
Southwark Crown Courtroom heard that the threats he made included capturing and decapitation.
Final month Emma mentioned she feared Ritchie would kill somebody when he started firing pictures at her and the boys, one aged eight and three 15-year-olds.
At Airdrie Sheriff Courtroom he admitted culpably and recklessly discharging a paintball gun, kicking Emma’s Staffordshire terrier and assaulting two law enforcement officials.
The incident occurred on October 18, 2020 - 5 months after Ritchie had despatched threatening emails to Rowling and the others.
Emma, 40, mentioned she and her household have been pressured to maneuver.
Her 14-year-old canine, Maya, suffered trauma and ultimately needed to be put down.
Emma mentioned: “You wouldn’t count on something like this to occur in a beautiful, quiet village.”
Ritchie was because of be sentenced over the paintball incident this week.
However Sheriff Joseph Hughes agreed to adjourn the case till October for a psychiatric report.
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