[ad_1]
Bitter worker who sent her boss 229 text messages pretending to be clients in an elaborate plot to make her life hell threatened to stab her children and frame her husband for having an affair
- Emma Arnold, 30, used SMS spoofing software to send bullying texts to boss
- She began sending the fake messages in November 2018 while employed
- Arnold sent threats to her boss’s children and sent others to clients and workers
- She pleaded guilty to five counts of harassment and menace in court on Friday
A woman’s ‘terrifying’ and sophisticated plot to make her former boss’s life a living nightmare with 229 text messages has been revealed in court.
Emma Arnold, formerly known as Emma Norman, sent messages to her former boss from different numbers pretending to be co-workers or clients she knew.
The aggrieved 30-year-old HR professional started sending the fake messages in November 2018, a year into her employment at the Sydney business.
Emma Arnold, formerly known as Emma Norman sent 229 messages to her former boss, who cannot be named for legal reasons, from different numbers pretending to be co-workers or clients she knew
The aggrieved 30-year-old HR professional started sending the fake messages in November 2018, a year into her employment at the Sydney business. Mock-up messages pictured
She sent threats to her boss’s children, while some claimed to be from the woman’s husband propositioning his wife’s clients in highly sexualised ways.
One message read: ‘This is going 2 be the worst Xmas ever for u. U see i no where u live and it is time u paid for what u did 2 my friends. U not believe me I sent ur address.’
Her boss’s mother also received harassing messages including: ‘Wakey wakey b***h sleeping is a thing of the past for u after you took my friends job’.
‘Did you hear that noise outside,’ another read.
The boss of the company, who cannot be named for legal reasons, bore the brunt of the messaging, with one even telling her to kill herself.
When Arnold was fired from the company a month later her messaging escalated, The Daily Telegraph reported.
During a seven day period in January 2019 she sent 50 messages threatening to harm her former boss.
She was arrested and charged with sending menacing tests to her former boss in February 2019 but she continued to offend after she was released on bail. Arnold pictured being arrested
One message said she was outside her boss’s house and invited her to ‘come and play’.
‘U know what would be funny? If I waited for everyone to get to work and then I lit the f***ing building on fire and watched you all burn,’ another message read.
Arnold pleaded guilty to five counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass, and offend and asked Judge Gina O’Rourke on Friday in the Parramatta District Court to take other offences into account.
She was arrested and charged with sending menacing tests to her former boss in February 2019 but she continued to offend after she was released on bail.
In March 2019 she was then convicted of stalking and intimidating a 51-year-old woman and avoided jail but sought revenge on the woman through spoof mobile numbers.
In March 2019 she was then convicted of stalking and intimidating a 51-year-old woman and avoided jail but sought revenge on the woman through spoof mobile numbers
This act of ‘spoofing’ whereby the sender information is manipulated to appear from a trusted source was described in court as a modern offence with the case likely to set a precedent.
Arnold was then arrested on November 2 in 2019 after police discovered CCTV footage of her buying menacing items she claimed were sent to her from the co-worker.
Judge O’Rourke said her conduct was ‘terrifying’ and ‘extremely upsetting’ after her messages turned threatening towards children.
Crown prosecutor Danielle New described Arnold as intelligent and well-educated and that her ‘dogged attempts’ to send menacing threats were calculated, elaborate and sophisticated.
The court heard how Arnold’s former boss spent years in fear not knowing where the texts would come from next after five employees or clients were targeted.
She believed the ongoing harassment would turn physical in nature and felt she could not protect her family.
Arnold is due to be sentenced on December 11.
Arnold was then again arrested on November 2 in 2019 after police discovered CCTV footage of her buying menacing items she claimed were sent to her from the co-worker who she had previously been convicted of stalking
[ad_2]
Source link