A jilted drugs boss who bombarded his ex-girlfriend with threatening messages sent a lackey round to slash her tyres after she refused to take him back, a court heard. Thomas Rayment, 32, was allowed to serve the remainder of his six-year sentence for dealing class A drugs on licence - despite harassing his former girlfriend and sending a man to slash her tyres from inside prison, the Liverpool Echo reports.
Rayment, who was jailed in February 2021 for managing a prolific operation which supplied £140k worth of heroin and crack cocaine to areas of Warrington, pleaded guilty to one count of malicious communications against his ex. He was jailed at HMP Thorn Cross, a Category D open prison in the village of Appleton Thorn, when he began threatening the mother of his child, over email.
After she blocked Rayment's email address, he warned her that he had a phone hidden in his anus.
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Rayment appeared at Liverpool Crown Court Friday (May 26) - the same day he was due to leave prison and move to accommodation in North Manchester. Prosecutor Sarah Griffin told the court how Rayment, formerly of Brookvale Close, Burtonwood and Westbrook, had been granted day release from prison during his sentence and had been allowed to visit his ex-girlfriend and their young son.
Following a family gathering on March 5, 2022, he begged the woman to take him back, but she refused and blocked his email address. Three days later, on the evening of March 8, the woman received an ominous email which read: "Giving you 'til 6.30pm to call with my son, then the games will start."
He continued to bombard her with threatening messages, telling her she would "suffer worse than you ever have" and "after today there will be no holding back, I promise it will be all-out war if you can't be civil". He warned her he had a spare mobile phone hidden in his anus, and so would continue to message her even if he was strip-searched and sent to another prison.
The woman did not respond. A short time later she heard a "hissing" sound, and when she checked the CCTV outside her Warrington home she saw a man stabbing her car tyres.
Just a few minutes later, at 6.41pm, she received another email from Rayment which read: "I told you to start taking me serious... take me seriously or pay the highest price you have ever paid".
He continued: "You call the police about this, it's going to be the worst decision you have ever made in your life. My life isn't worth living like this, so yours won't be."
The woman called 999, and Rayment continued to email her during and after police had visited her address, telling her "I didn't want it to come to this, but you have given me no choice" and "I'm ready for whatever, so I hope you are". At 8.50pm he wrote: "Do I have to send someone now? It's not going to be some sh***y popped tyres next time."
The following day, he sent the woman WhatsApp messages posing as a police officer before continuing to threaten her. In a victim statement, the mum of two said the incident had left her feeling anxious, upset and distracted.
Miss Griffin said: "When she leaves her home she constantly checks her surroundings in fear of someone attacking her... She's in a constant state of fight or flight. Every night she goes to bed in fear - 'is this the night I get attacked? Is this the night someone comes to hurt me? Is this the night my car gets vandalised and I can't get my children to school in the morning?'"
Despite this, she expressed support for Rayment's rehabilitation in the hope he could continue to have a relationship with his son. Andrew Picken, defending, said: "It was a completely stupid thing to do and he acknowledges that not only did this have an affect on (his ex-girlfriend) it had an effect on their son. He understands that."
He said Rayment had completed a seven-week thinking skills course, and had undertaken a further course in personal management to help with coping mechanisms. Judge Gary Woodhall said: "I'm satisfied that this offence is one of high culpability, your targeting of a vulnerable victim... it was a campaign which was managed by you.
"I'm satisfied that the effect of this was great harm; it caused substantial distress to your victim and that cascaded down to the children in the home.."
However, he accepted that Rayment had taken steps to improve his behaviour, and acknowledged the woman's desire to maintain contact between him and their son. He handed down a 54 week suspended sentence, and ordered Rayment to complete 200 hours of unpaid work. He was also given a restraining order preventing him from contacting his former partner, and would be allowed to see his son through a third party.
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