As nasty letters are filling letterboxes in Shiptonthorpe, East Yorkshire, we take a look at some of the other times poisonous pens have struck UK communitie
In a plotline reminiscent of Midsummer Murders, a sleepy Yorkshire village is being terrorised by a slew of poison pen letters that began landing on doormats two years ago. The hateful messages are anonymously typed and, despite complaints to police in Shiptonthorpe, East Yorkshire, the writer has not stopped.
One letter tells its recipient, whose home had been damaged by floods, that the writer hopes for ‘lots of rain so your house can be flooded again and again’ and ‘you are washed away never to be seen again’.
The troll also informed another local that ‘everyone agrees you should rot in hell’ and ‘hope cancer finds you very soon’. But this isn’t the only time people in Britain have been plagued by a bully who is writing letters with a poison pen letters and hateful ink. Let’s take a look at some of the other times this has hit the headlines…
The Sheringham poison pen letters
In the 1920s anonymous letters were sent to well-off residents of Sheringham, Norfolk, accusing them of improprieties. The letters were written on note paper and postcards and included words such as “you are a spiteful, jealous old cat and a she-devil. Take care your past is going to be written.”
Dorothy Myrtle Thurburn was at the time a pretty 20-something, who worked with the Girl Guides. She became the prime suspect when a policeman saw her posting letters around the village. Certainly, other members of the Girl Guides were targeted, but so was Dorothy herself – or was this a trick?
Dorothy was tried three times and finally acquitted in 1924. The jury found there to not be enough evidence for a guilty verdict and after her acquittal, she received yet another letter. It read, “Fool and a solicitor and will never catch me. I am free to continue forever and ever.”
The Littlehampton Poison Pen Letters
When Irish migrant Rose Gooding settled into the small seaside town of Littlehampton in 1918, she struck up an unlikely friendship with her neighbour, Edith Swan. Rose had a child out of wedlock, something that was frowned upon at the time, and Edith was deeply conservative but they got on well.
However, a spat over a communal garden would see the end to their chumminess and shortly after Edith started receiving obscene letters, which were blamed on Rose. The writer also sent letters to others in the town, and Rose was tried and served jail time.
A few years later, when a neighbour and fellow victim caught Edith apparently in the act she was then tried as the true perpetrator. In 1923 Edith was finally sentenced to 12 months behind bars – having even sent letters claiming to be Rose to her fiancé Bert admitting to a made-up affair.
However, the judge reportedly said he found it unfathomable that a “respectable, clean-mouthed woman” like Edith could be capable of writing such “filth”. The scandal, which rocked the nation, was brought to life last year in the film Wicked Little Letters, starring Olivia Coleman.
The Manfield poison pen letters
Retired academic Dr James Forster was jailed in 2001 after spending more than a decade targeting residents in Manfield, North Yorkshire, with nearly 200 poison pen letters and threats. The prolific troll, who worked at Open University, bombarded people in the village with hate filled writing between 1987 and 1999.
He even went so far as to throw paint bombs at a house and threaten to drop a bomb down the chimney of an elderly woman’s home. After police eventually cracked the case and found evidence including his diary, stencilling kit and latex gloves in the house, he was sentenced to a measly four months in jail.
One villager told the press: “It was awful at the time because nobody knew who was behind those letters. People were suspecting each other and it divided the village, there were a lot of people affected and it was a difficult time for everyone.”
The Holt poison pen letters
Back in 2014, people in the picturesque north Norfolk town of Holt were targeted by anonymous mean letters. The hand-written messages, which include threats and abuse, have been sent over the space of a year and included words such as “The longer you leave it, the sooner you will have to vacate the property.”
The culprit was eventually weeded out but he was released with a verbal police warning and no charge.
