A North East woman who sent messages to a girl telling her to "slit her wrists" and "drink bleach" has avoided a prison sentence. Hollie Hay was still a teenager when she set up multiple social media accounts and used them to send horrific communications to her younger victim.
One message read: "I'll gouge your eyes out and shove them down your throat"; while another threatened to attack the victim's mother. A third read: "I know where you live."
Previous Conviction
Teesside Crown Court heard that Hay, 22, had previously been handed a community order for sending threatening messages to a former teacher in 2022. Prosecutor Ian West told the court on Friday that Hay threatened to "kill his family and eat them." He added: "She said she would 'burn the school down' and follow him home."
Campaign of Abuse
On Friday, the court heard that Hay was 17 when she started contacting the younger female victim on social media. Mr West said that the victim had "posted a video - and she enjoyed the attention she got; people wanting to be her friend. One of the people exchanging messages with her was the defendant."
After a month of chatting online, Hay "started to express a romantic interest" in the girl. Mr West said that when the victim told her she wasn't interested "Hay was not deterred," and "she sent messages proclaiming her love for the girl."
The younger girl blocked Hay from contacting her but over the course of the next year, the court heard that she received messages from other accounts, which Hay had set up. One message read: "I'm going to kill you."
Victim Impact
On Friday, the victim came to court to read her statement. She said that she "grew up happy with no cares in the world" until Hay began contacting her. She said: "You broke every part of me down to the point where there was nothing left"
The teen said that she began self-harming and "wrote suicide notes." She said she was frightened that Hay would carry out the threats. With her voice breaking the teen told Hay that she had chosen to "walk out of this courtroom and leave all the pain here with you." You chose to inflict pain. Now you have to live with what you've done."
Sentencing
Hay, of Carlisle Street in Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to causing serious alarm, or distress, by stalking from 2021 to 2022, at an earlier hearing. Her barrister Stephen Constantine said that Hay had mental health problems at the time.
The court heard she was assessed by three psychiatrists and now "regularly attends" mental health appointments and "she is given appropriate medication." Mr Constantine said that Hay "is described as someone who barely leaves her home and when she does, it's with her parents. Her use of social media is strictly monitored by her parents."
Hay wrote a letter to the judge - she said she was "horrified and ashamed by what I did" and apologised to her victim.
Judge Richard Clews said that the offending had, "and sadly continues to have, a significant affect" on the victim. Reading from one of the psychiatric reports, the judge told Hay that she has a "lifelong history of emotional behaviour problems." You were diagnosed with ADHD and autism spectrum disorder. It seems to me clear that you had limited insight into the seriousness of what you were saying."
The judge handed Hay a one-year community order. She must attend 30 rehabilitation days with the probation service. A restraining order was put in place banning her from contacting her victim for the next five years.
