South Gloucestershire | Archive | 2006 | March | 10
From the archive, first published Friday 10th Mar 2006.
A YATE teenager who made nearly 3,000 threatening phone calls to the Samaritans over a four-month period has been jailed.
Holly Monk, 19, of Celestine Road, threatened staff in more than 30 offices and told them their Bristol office would be firebombed.
In some cases she would talk to volunteers about her problems - sometimes for more than 30 minutes - before swearing at them and making threats.
She would then hang up, leaving frantic staff to contact the Bristol office to warn them - but was arrested in December last year after police traced her mobile phone.
Monk pleaded guilty at Bristol Crown Court on January 5 to six charges of communicating false information. On Monday she was sentenced to 18 months in prison. She asked for a further 49 similar offences to be taken into consideration.
Sentencing her Judge Richard Bromilow read out a statement from the Samaritans about the impact her threats had on their work.
It read: "The impact of these 2,753 calls was that over 30 Samaritans branches received threats to the Bristol branch.
"The volunteers who took them were often worried and sometimes quite upset and concerned for the volunteers' safety, especially if they could not contact the Bristol branch if our phone lines were immediately engaged."
The judge added: "Very valuable work was deflected. The volunteers of the Samaritans are central to its success. It is a much-needed organisation and I have to have full regard for the impact of what you did.
"You say your calls were made as a cry for help in jest but it is quite clear that when your calls were heard by others they were taken very seriously."
The court heard that Monk made the phone calls - 60 of which were bomb threats - from her mobile phone during evenings when she had been drinking.
James Cranfield, prosecuting, told the court that Monk would be connected to a central Samaritan switchboard, then transferred to an office that had an available member of staff.
He said:"Over the four months, she spoke to volunteers in many offices including Bristol, Winchester, Manchester, Bangor and Omagh.
"On August 24 last year she spoke to a member of the Surrey branch and said her brother was going to blow up the Bristol branch.
"On September 9, she did the same at the Gloucester branch. She always used the name Leah."
He added that one volunteer who took a phone call from her described her as "emotionally distressed" and "hysterical".
When Monk was arrested she immediately admitted making the calls, saying she had initially rung the Samaritans for help but they had "pissed her about" - so she began making the threats.
Virginia Cornwall, defending, said:"She is a woman who clearly has unresolved problems since childhood."
She told the court that Monk had been living with her grandmother after her mother remarried and started a new family.
She said that Monk would often "self harm" because she felt isolated and that the calls were a cry for help.
Monk has previous convictions for public order offences and has spent time in a young offenders' institution.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008