UK: 'It will happen' warned the man behind the death threats to David O'Leary's wife, reports Rachel Donnelly
West Yorkshire Police have appealed for information about the author of seven "menacing and chilling" letters sent to Leeds United manager, Mr David O'Leary, threatening serious harm against his wife.
The letters, which began arriving at the club's Elland Road stadium in February last year shortly after the start of the first trial of the players, Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer over an attack on a student, threatened harm against Mr O'Leary's wife, Joy, if they were not dropped from the team.
The family has been given police protection and in a statement Mr O'Leary said he and his wife and two children "totally support the effort of the West Yorkshire Police in tracing the sender of this hate mail". In his book, Leeds on Trial, about last year's turbulent times at the club when both players faced two trials over a violent attack on Leeds student, Mr Sarfraz Najeib, Mr O'Leary revealed the threat against his wife. Neither player was dropped from the team during the trials but the Football Association decided that Bowyer would not be eligible to play for England during the legal proceedings.
Stressing that although the threat had not been carried out there was still a risk it could be acted upon, Det Supt Eddie Hemsley, of West Yorkshire Police, described the person who wrote the letters as "misguidedly" believing he was "the champion of a cause". Det Insp David Olroyd, explained the author "made a certain demand of Mr O'Leary and the letter contained a cruel threat to harm his wife, Joy, if it was not met. It also gave further details of how the attack would be carried out". The first letter was posted to Mr O'Leary at Elland Road on February 14th with the last arriving on December 18th, a few days after Woodgate was sentenced to 100 hours community service for affray and cleared of a charge of causing grievous bodily harm. Bowyer was acquitted of both charges. The postmarks showed that six of the letters were sorted in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and posted in Doncaster or Lincoln and the other letter was posted in Nottingham.
Speaking at a press conference at Holbeck police station, Det Supt Hemsley said: "The suspect could live anywhere in the country, but he is more likely to live or work in the areas where the letters were posted - Doncaster, Lincoln or Nottingham. The author is almost certainly male and the recent forensic work we have carried out makes it easy to rule out anyone unconnected whose handwriting may resemble that of the subject." Unveiling a 2 foot-wide photographic image of handwriting on one of the envelopes containing the threatening letters, Mr Hemsley said the author had not tried to disguise his handwriting. In the last three letters sent, the author used a combination of lower case and capital letters. One letter said: "You cannot believe how serious I am. TRY ME!" and another said: "I really do promise you IT WILL happen." The letters were written on a word processor and printed on a laser printer.