Hoax caller spared jail over bomb call

Jacqueline Hustler, 43, who is blind and deaf, was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court after admitting making bogus calls to West Yorkshire police, Batley Enterprise Centre and Dewsbury and District Hospital between July 2009 and July 2010.

Hustler, of Moorgate Avenue, Bradford, contacted police between July 24-26, 2009, alleging she had been raped, prosecutor Abigail Langford told the court.

Then between February 2-8 last year, Hustler made a series of hoax calls to Batley Enterprise Centre including threatening to stab staff. The centre is used by businesses and a mental health charity.

On February 3, Hustler left a message on the answer phone at the centre, saying: “You’re all going to die. I’m going to get you back. I’m going to stab you all.”

She left a message on February 8 warning that a bomb had been left outside, as well as other messages threatening to kill staff. Hustler told the operator: “There is a bomb outside your building.

“It’s going to go off. Watch yourselves,”

She left two further threatening messages with the centre.

Between March 2 and July 10 last year, Hustler made a series of calls to the hospital warning that a baby had been left in a box outside the accident and emergency department.

She told the hospital’s switchboard operator that she ‘didn’t know’ if the baby was alive.

She gave a false name of a relative who lived in Dewsbury, which led police to Hustler.

Police arrested her and, during a search of her Bradford home, found SIM cards in her bedroom and handbag.

She later admitted making the calls to police.

She told them: “I feel so lonely, that’s why I do it. I don’t mean to do it, I just wanted to hear a friendly voice.”

Charlotte Worsley, mitigating, said Hustler had mental health problems which she was now addressing and was sorry for the trouble she had caused.

Sentencing Hustler, the Recorder Henry Prosser said her actions had been a ‘monumental’ waste of more than 200 hours of police time.

He said: “These are very serious offences indeed. They involve false allegations of rape which can cause a multitude of problems sometimes for people falsely accused and cause a monumental waste of police time.

“There were bomb threats to Batley Enterprise Centre and again they cause the most terrible waste of resources and massive alarm.

“And to complete the trio of false calls, you were making calls to Dewsbury hospital about a baby left outside.”

Hustler was given a two year community order with supervision for two years.