A FORMER Settle woman has been jailed for making death threats against a crown court judge who had ordered the destruction of her dangerous dog.

Melissa Thorp, 50, posted drunken ramblings on TikTok in which she incited violence against York Crown Court judge Simon Hickey and a police officer.

Prosecutors said this “put each of them in very real danger” as she instructed her followers to “share (the post) far and wide”.

She was jailed for two years at Leeds Crown Court.

Thorp named both the judge and the police officer who investigated three attacks by her Belgian Malinois bitch as “targets” in her drunken TikTok rants.

Leeds Crown Court heard on Tuesday she said they “needed to lose someone or something close to them”.

Thorp, who was incensed the judge had ordered the destruction of her beloved pet Blu, later deleted the post once she’d “sobered up”, the court heard.

But it had already been viewed by people who reported it to police.

Thorp, who had been working as a general assistant at a creamery in the Yorkshire Dales, was arrested and charged with sending a communication threatening death or serious harm.

She admitted the offence, which put her in breach of a suspended prison sentence for the original offences of being the owner in charge of a dangerous dog.

Those offences occurred last year when, in separate incidents, the “German Shepherd-type dog” bit a Dales rambler, a train conductor on the Settle to Skipton train and a woman in Settle town centre.

In April this year, Thorp received an 18-month suspended prison sentence at York Crown Court and the judge ordered the destruction of Blu. She had been sent to the crown court for sentencing after admitting at  Skipton Magistrates Court in January two charges of being in control of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury, and one charge of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control, with no injury.

The mother-of-one had tearfully pleaded with the judge not to order the destruction of her beloved pet whom she described as “my best friend”.

The sentencing judge said that Thorp “knew it should have been on a muzzle and I don’t think you are a fit and proper person (to own a dog).”

Thorp was banned from keeping dogs for 10 years and ordered to pay a combined £620 to the victims for their injuries and the damage to their garments.

Despite Thorp being spared jail on that occasion, she was furious at the loss of her pet.

Lydia Carroll, prosecuting at Tuesday's hearing at Leeds Crown Court said on July 1 this year, a woman browsing TikTok spotted the disturbing TikTok post.

The social media user told a friend, who reported it to police Thorp was brought in for questioning.

She told officers she was “very drunk” when posting the comments after downing a bottle-and-a-half of vodka, smoking cannabis and taking "some pills" at a friend’s house.

She said she was distraught at the time because she had just learnt that Blu had been put down.

Ms Carroll said: “She said she was paralytic and crying."

Thorp, now of Castleford, said she had deleted the post 12 hours later after “sobering up” and that she had “no intention for anyone to be killed” or harmed.

Ms Carroll said that by including “information about where the judge and the officer worked” in the TikTok post, Thorp had “increased the risk” of their being targeted.

Thorp’s online rant included comments about Blu being “my whole life” and the comment “Dogs against humans”.

She railed against the loss of “innocent lives like Blu and XL Bullies” that had been “executed by the same Government regime”, adding: “The humans need to be punished.

"Justice to my brave Belgian Malinois who died for the corrupt British government.”

Thorp has conviction for 21 offences on a criminal record dating back over 30 years, the court heard.

They include a previous malicious-communications offence, attempted robbery, carrying an offensive weapon, affray, threatening behaviour and criminal damage.

Defence barrister Kelleigh Lodge said Thorp had mental health issues and had “struggled with alcohol in the past”.

Ms Lodge added: “On (the day in question) she was in a very bad state emotionally and she had gone round to her friend’s house for support but consumed alcohol that made the situation a bit worse.

“She had no intention of anything being carried out and didn’t want any harm coming to the two people mentioned, but she does accept that others could have interpreted the message differently.”

Judge Kate Rayfield told Thorp that although the dog was “of real emotional support to you in respect of your poor mental health”, her behaviour on TikTok was “wholly unacceptable”.

She added: “Whilst under the influence of alcohol, you posted TikToks publicly, meaning that anyone could see them.

“In them, you incited violence against both the police officer who investigated the dangerous- dog act offences and the judge who presided over the crown court proceedings which resulted.

“You specifically named each of them, thereby making them direct targets for anyone who followed up on your pleas that they ‘needed to lose someone or something close to them’.

"You put each of them in very real danger that evening.

“You say that you did not intend any harm to come to anyone but that is little comfort to those people who were named as targets.

“They each knew you were capable of violence because of your previous convictions.

"Regardless of your personal intentions, from the point you posted the TikToks publicly with an instruction to share far and wide, it was no longer only your intentions that were important.

"It was the intentions of anyone who answered your call to arms.

"Both the police officer and the judge were simply doing their jobs.

"The person responsible for your dog being put down is you, because you persisted in taking it out in public without a muzzle which was directly against the police advice you were given after it bit the first person.

“The dog went to bite three more people before the destruction order was made.

"It beggars belief that you sought to place the blame on those people who were purely carrying out their professional duty to protect the public from further acts of harm; something that you yourself should have been doing as a responsible dog owner.

“To make threats against those who administer and uphold the law and to incite violence against them is extremely serious and the message must go out that anyone who conducts themselves in this way will go immediately to prison.”

Thorp was jailed for two years and two months for the malicious communication and breaching the suspended sentence.