An anti-vaxxer who called in bogus bomb threats at vaccination centres and sparked a panic at a school has been jailed.
Rodney Peasley, 66, called in threats to a health organisation and a school in Truro, Cornwall, in November last year.
During a call to Kernow Health he indicated multiple devices would be detonated in service vehicles randomly in the next hour.
Peasley also made two calls to the Richard Lander School where Covid jabs were taking place, causing an evacuation as well as a lockdown in NHS venues.
In a three week campaign at the Mount Hawke medical centre in Truro he also slashed a marquee used for vaccinations and left a smoke pellet and graffiti, before spraying paint on CCTV cameras.
Prosecutor Nick Lewin said Peasley, of Scorrier, Cornwall, admitted four charges of criminal damage totalling £16,000 at the Mount Hawke centre and three charges of making bomb hoaxes.
The court was told the pensioner used a pay-as-you-go phone which he had topped up at a local shop and he was seen on CCTV.
Robin Smith, defending, said Peasley was not 'a fervent anti vaxxer' but wanted to make it 'crystal clear' that in the 1980s he was involved in the 'welfare, care and safeguarding of young people.'
Mr Smith said Peasley was against the 'unilateral uninformed mass vaccination of young people without them and their parents being given full information'.
Mr Smith said this 'did not excuse the way he expressed his views' and Peasley felt 'remorse and shame' in what was a perplexing case.
When he added Peasley ‘sincerely cares about the welfare and safety of young people, the judge countered: "He threatened to bomb their school."
Mr Justice Garnham said it was 'astonishing' that he had behaved in this way, adding Peasley had launched an 'attack on the Covid vaccination plans' at Mount Hawke and the school.
"It is clear to me this was part of a coordinated attack on important, vital work to provide Covid vaccinations to the people of Cornwall."
He said bomb threats are 'pernicious' and affect ordinary people carrying out their daily lives.
He jailed Peasley, who has no previous convictions and was of a positive good character, for a total of 21 months.
