An engineering boss who called the mother of a teenage boy a ‘worthless council estate skank’ after believing her son had attacked him has been spared prison.
Eric Oldfield, 45, sent a barrage of threats to the mother of a 14-year-old boy over a five-month period as part of a vigilante ‘smear’ campaign after he was assaulted by a gang of youths while waiting for a tram.
Between October 2020 and March 2021, Oldfield sent a series of letters to the woman calling her a ‘worthless c**k s*****g council estate skank’ and demanded that she keep her son away from the wrong crowds.
He also set up a fake account under the woman’s name on a sadistic sex website, with the profile saying she was ‘curvy and looking for casual sex with black men in the north west’.
Eric Oldfield (pictured outside court) sent a barrage of threats to the mother of a 14-year-old boy over a five-month period
Between October 2020 and March 2021, Oldfield sent a series of letters to the woman calling her a ‘worthless c**k s*****g council estate skank’
Oldfield twice followed through with threats to ‘come round’ and visited their address, leaving an ominous stick note calling card on their Ring alarm bell before leaving.
He was eventually arrested when the mother said she feared for her son’s safety when walking to and from school.
Oldfield, who ran his own engineering firm before becoming a well-paid consultant, told police he had been given the boy’s name by a contact, but refused to provide a name. He later admitted his ‘source’ lacked credibility.
Appearing at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, Oldfield admitted sending malicious communications.
He was handed a four-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months. He was also banned from contacting the boy and his family under the terms of a restraining order.
Lisa Boocock, prosecuting, told the court: ‘In November 2018, the defendant was punched in the face at a Metrolink tram stop in south Manchester. He fell to the ground and the incident left him with facial bruising and a cut to his lip.
‘The case was promptly reported to the police and the incident was captured on CCTV. However, the case was later dropped due to a lack of definitive evidence being produced.
‘Although no one was prosecuted for the crime, the defendant was told by a source that a fourteen year old boy was one of the perpetrators.
In October 2020, the defendant discovered their address and sent the boy’s mother a letter stating that he was the victim of an assault in that he believed her son was involved in.’
The court heard Oldfield told the mother he would report her son to the police and demanded she put him on ‘the straight and narrow’.
Appearing at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, Oldfield admitted sending malicious communications
In February 2021, he wrote to her again, calling her a ‘dirty s**g’ and threatening to ‘come round and sort you out you worthless c**k s*****g council estate skank’.
In another letter, Oldfield attached a screenshot of Google Maps with their address highlighted, also including a link to an article about a teenage boy being killed in Manchester.
Ms Boocock added: ‘She felt that this article was intended to make her feel that her son was going to suffer the same fate. He also reissued his demand to stop her son from hanging out with the wrong crowd.’
The following month, Oldfield sent a letter with a printout showing a website on which he had created a fake account under the mother’s name.
Its bio read: ‘White broad curvy woman looking for casual sex black men in the north west of England.’
The website ‘specialised in content showing women getting mistreated’ and the bogus profile included a line asking for ‘tributes and requests’ to be sent to her address.
Oldfield also contacted the son on Instagram using the username thinnestblueline.
He told the teenager that he could not lie and the incident had been caught on CCTV, but the boy replied that he was a ‘lowlife sitting behind a laptop’.
On March 14, 2021, he sent a message to the boy’s mother saying that if she did not act, he would ‘come round and smash their windows in’.
Four days later, he sent another message to the son, though directed to his mother, saying ‘act or I come round’.
The following week, Oldfield attended their address a 1.39pm, before turning up a second time a 2.58pm.
The defendant was arrested at his home on April 3.
Max Saffman, representing Oldfield, said in mitigation that the assault had ‘triggered heart issues’ and put him ‘into shock’.
He said Oldfield had been ‘alone for a while’ and was ‘struggling to hold down a serious relationship’, adding that his isolation ‘only got worse during the Covid pandemic’.
Oldfield was described as ‘an intelligent man with a history of employment’, including a consultancy role with a good salary.
But passing sentence, Recorder Jeremy Lasker told him: ‘You display an amazing ability for double standards, telling this lady to make sure her kids do not hang around with the wrong crowd and then going on to call her a worthless c**k s*****g council estate skank.
‘Where do we go if every time the police decide not to charge a suspect the public decide to take it into their own hands. Your actions after your assault have turned you from a victim to an offender.’
On top of a suspended jail sentence and restraining order, Oldfield was also ordered to undertake 20 rehabilitation activity hours and complete 100 hours of unpaid work.
DailyMail
