Ex-teacher who posted acid to pregnant social worker is jailed

AFORMER teacher has been jailed for posting sulphuric acid to a pregnant social worker as part of a sickening hate campaign.

Domhnall Rooney sent acid from his car battery with a birthday card and a note saying it would go on her “face and family” unless she “backed off ”.

The 36-year-old had a “deep hatred” of the victim and wanted to put the “fear of God” into her after a dispute, Birmingham Crown Court heard.

He also put up posters bearing the victim’s picture in the area where he believed she lived, branding her a “paedophile supplier of children”.

Rooney, of Poplar Avenue, Edgbaston, was jailed for three years after he had previously been convicted of putting the woman in fear of violence through harassment.

His frightening four-month campaign began in February 2015 when he emailed police, suggesting that a child linked to the social worker had been abused.

He then sent the victim a “vile” message saying he could see her from his attic – and had hacked her emails.

Rooney also told her: “You don’t know what I am going to do, and I mean that in the nicest way.”

He posed as Midland-based paedophile-hunter Stinson Hunter to send hundreds of emails to schools and council departments, alleging the social worker was a “sociopathic abuser of children”.

The victim said in a statement that her ordeal left her afraid to go to work or be at home alone.

She said she found the emails “humiliating and disgusting” and admitted that she had questioned her future as a social worker.

Rooney was banned from contacting the victim as well as Birmingham City Council’s social services and legal services departments.

Passing sentence, Judge Melbourne Inman QC told him: “What you did was wholly unacceptable.

“She was doing a public service as part of her job.

“Those who do that need the protection of the court from those who would seek to frighten them.”

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