A bomb hoaxer has been given a community order after threatening to blow up Greater Manchester Police headquarters and accusing Mayor Andy Burnham of “protecting paedophiles.” Anthony McGrath, 57, posted on social media site X in November 2023, claiming bombs would arrive from Russia and demanded the return of his property, warning that the town hall would also be “removed.”
Threats to Public Figures
Liverpool Crown Court heard on Friday that McGrath sent a series of threatening emails in January and February 2024 to Salford MP Rebecca Long-Bailey, former Conservative minister Sir Robert Buckland, a judge, a solicitor, a chartered surveyor, and NatWest bank. In one email to Ms Long-Bailey, he wrote: “You all messed with the wrong person. My army is much bigger considering I have Russian and Chinese support. We will be armed and shoot to kill.” He also told the Labour MP “you are a target” and specified a time when her office would explode.
Prosecutor Martyn Walsh told the court that Ms Long-Bailey said the incident “made me feel worried about the safety of my staff and myself.” McGrath sent an email with the subject “car bomb” to Sir Robert Buckland, stating a time when the politician’s house would “explode.” He also emailed District Judge Jacqueline White, claiming “We have every judge's home address and we also have packs of lions.”
Further Menacing Communications
McGrath emailed Laurie Burnley-Myers of the Jewish Representative Council for Greater Manchester, alleging a “bomb alert from the IRA.” The court heard that McGrath, from Sale, Greater Manchester, was suffering from mental health issues at the time and had been sectioned after his arrest.
Defence lawyer Lucy Moran said: “It is my submission that there is no real risk of this happening again. He is now looked after, medicated and in remission for his conditions.”
Sentence and Restraining Order
Judge Gary Woodhall sentenced McGrath to a 15-month community order, requiring a 10-day rehabilitation activity requirement and a 12-month mental health treatment requirement. He said: “These offences all occurred, on the information before me, when you were suffering with a mental health relapse. If that wasn't the case, the sentence in this case would have been entirely different.”
McGrath had pleaded guilty earlier to one count of sending a communication threatening death or serious harm and 12 counts of sending an offensive/indecent/obscene/menacing message via a public communications network. He was also made subject to restraining orders preventing him from contacting the victims for seven years.
