LONDON (AP) – A British man who targeted schools and businesses with threatening letters during a six-week terrorist campaign in 2013 was sentenced Thursday to more than four years in prison for a 1988 sexual assault, plus an additional five years in prison. was sentenced.
Woolwich Crown Court in east London heard Gary Preston sent 42 envelopes containing white powder (later discovered to be talcum powder) and threatening messages, causing concern at the targeted venues. Some of the envelopes had small letters written on white paper in Arabic, such as “Think fast, you have seconds, Inshallah.”
Among the venues targeted in autumn 2013 were the large Westfield shopping centers in east and west London, schools and universities in Essex, east of the capital, and the Premier Inn at London’s Stansted Airport. There were hotels etc.
Preston was arrested in September 2020 and pleaded guilty to 21 charges in August last year.
Preston, 64, was also sentenced to a further five years and three months in prison for a separate charge of indecent assault with a knife in a women’s public toilet in the town of Raynham, Essex, in January 1988.
Judge Andrew Lees said each sentence would be served consecutively, sentencing Preston to a total of nine years and six months in prison.
Mr Preston’s defense lawyer Stephen Dyble said at an earlier hearing that his client had suffered from “cognitive decline” in recent years, but that there were “no mental health problems” that needed to be revealed in court. There was no such thing.”
