Hoax event in Lancashire, Ross Street, Brierfield area, United Kingdom on Mon 5th December 2022

A woman has been found guilty of a bomb hoax after she posted a letter through a neighbour's front door claiming a mosque was to be targeted. Terry Chester, 60, also warned there was a gunman in Sackville Street, Brierfield, a court heard. Chester denied the charge, claiming she had written the note to herself, but magistrates in Burnley found her guilty of the offence. Richard Blackburn, prosecuting, said on the morning of May 12, 2022, a woman returned to her home in Ross Street to find the letter inside her front door. The note, written in blue felt tip, read: "Bomb. Mosque. Sackville Street. Also man has gun on Guildford Street. Police." READ MORE: 'Dangerous' knife-wielding thug robbed victim on his way to work The woman called the police who carried out CCTV enquiries and saw Chester posting something through the front door. Chester was arrested and agreed she was the woman in the footage, but claimed she had bent down to tie her shoelaces. She then said that must be a mistake as she was wearing slip-on shoes. When asked to explain her actions in the witness box, Chester, of Fernbank Close, Nelson, said she had written the note but insisted she had not posted it and it was not intended as a threat. She claimed on the evening of May 11 she had seen a woman she knows locally, who had a black eye. When she asked the woman, who she thought was called Siobhan, what had happened, Siobhan said her partner was angry as he had seen her talking to another man outside the mosque. "She told me her partner had said he was going to bomb the mosque to make sure he got the man she was talking to", Chester said. "He didn't believe there wasn't anything going on. If that didn't work he was going to collect the gun he had left with a friend in Guildford Street." Chester claimed she did not trust the police so decided not to report it. She said she wanted to speak to someone from the mosque to alert them. At some point she had written herself a note to remind herself and collect her thoughts. The following morning, Chester claimed she had gone to the mosque but there was no-one there so she tried to phone - but got no answer, so she put the whole thing out of her mind. She said she had no idea how the note she had written to herself had ended up through the woman's door. However, the magistrates did not believe Chester's explanation. The bench said she had several opportunities to tell the police about Siobhan and the threats she claimed her partner was making, but the first time she had given that account was in the witness box. Having seen Chester on the CCTV, crouched down with her arms outstretched towards the letter box, they said the evidence against her was overwhelming. Chester, who has previous convictions for arson and a public order offence, was found guilty of malicious communications, putting a person in fear for their safety, and will return to Burnley Magistrates' Court on April 6 2023.