A man has been jailed for six months after being found guilty of sending grossly offensive and threatening letters to the editor of the Staffordshire Newsletter.

Denzil Bucknor, (44), was also issued with a restraining order which forbids him from contacting editor Killoran Wills.

Bucknor admitted to Cannock magistrates that he sent sexually explicit and menacing letters – including one smeared with blood – and said thery were in “retaliation” for the newspaper publishing stories about him.

Magistrates heard how Bucknor, who denied a charge of harrassment, targeted Ms Wills personally after finding out who she was at a prior court case.

The series of letters included what he said was “a Hebrew curse” which consisted of smears of blood, drawings and threats.

Ms Wills told the court: “I found the ones I read abusive, offensive, shocking and threatening.

“I did not feel intimidated, but was more concerned that my staff would be.

“I was also later made aware of another letter which said a hit man had been deployed and that we would all be gunned down.”

Bucknor, who represented himself, asked Ms Wills: “What gives you the right to print things about me in your paper?”

Ms Wills explained that newspapers were within their rights to report anything in the public domain, including court proceedings or police statements.

Newsletter deputy editor Vincent Gibbons acted as a witness in the trial, after reading two letters later sent to the newspaper’s office.

Due to their explicit content, he advised Ms Wills not to read the letters.

Mr Gibbons told the court: “I was appalled and felt nauseated by the letters.”

He said he was even more alarmed to receive a letter marked ‘HMP Winson Green, Birmingham’, after Bucknor was remanded on custody there.

Bucknor said: “If you were not provoking me, I would have no reason to write these letters.”

He was sentenced to six months imprisonment for harrassment.

Bucknor was also on trial for a charge of malicious communication after sending an indecent letter to Stafford man Robert Yale, who is the clerk at Cotonfields Allotments.

Mr Yale said Bucknor had been a “very problematic tenant” whom he had known since 1999.

Bucknor’s letter, he said, was “highly offensive, racist and threatening”, and signed “Santa Claus”.

He was given a further three months for malicious communication, to run concurrently with the previous sentence.