Suspended sentence for rape threats

A pensioner threatened to rape female staff at a bank and members of their families if he was not paid £150,000.

A major inquiry was launched last June after Peter Gould, 71, sent an anonymous ransom note to the HSBC branch in Milnthorpe, Cumbria.

The note was traced to Gould, who was arrested in Milnthorpe.

Gould pleaded guilty to blackmail and was handed a two-year jail term, suspended for two years, at Carlisle Crown Court.