A prisoner who threatened to rape and kill a lady in his cell using an illegal mobile phone has been sentenced to more than three years in prison.
Just a few months into his sentence at Elmley Prison in Sheppey, Kent, Jerral Johnson-Lowe, 29, became friends with the victim, a single mother, on Instagram.
They became together when Johnson-Lowe was serving a two-year sentence for violent disorder after the death of university student Andre Bent, the cousin of S Club 7’s Bradley McIntosh. The couple apparently maintained a “emotionally involved” relationship until he become aggressive and controlling.
After he became fixated on her, the victim blocked him, Maidstone Crown Court was informed.
She said he made threats to rape her and her little kid and threatened to murder her and her unborn child.
Additionally, he emailed pornographic images the lady had given him while she was imprisoned to her brother and a male Facebook friend, at his request, and he also threatened to kill her family members.
Johnson-Lowe entered a guilty plea to two counts of making a threat to murder, sending a harmful message, and revealing sexually explicit photos.
He received a three years, four months in prison term on Monday along with a ten-year restraining order.
The offender, who was previously a part of grime rap artist Mostack’s entourage, has 13 prior convictions, including ones for violence, harassment, and intentionally inflicting great bodily damage. All of them involved partners.
Just a few months into his prison sentence, Johnson-Lowe asked the lady, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to follow him on Instagram. Soon after, the two became friends. Then he sent her a Snapchat message.
She provided him her personal information, including her home address and family members’ contact information, despite the fact that she was a serving prisoner and had a history of violence towards women.
However, three months after they first connected online, Johnson-Lowe allegedly become domineering, requiring rapid replies to his messages and always wanting to know where she was.
Mr. Connolly said in court that the defendant “began to make hazy threats…and at one dispute he referenced to the reason why he was in jail, saying “That’s what happens if people are taken for a d***head.”
Johnson-Lowe then sent a message on November 4, 2020, stating, “Done chatting now.” All action,” which was followed two days later by “I will touch you while I’m out.”
In another, he menacingly threatened to beat her when he left. I’m going to get you and your family.
On Christmas Day 2020, after her mother had declined to call him because she was visiting relatives, he also emailed her a death threat.
Johnson-Lowe wrote in the message to the victim’s mother, “I’m going to murder (name).”
When Johnson-Lowe was dissatisfied with the pace at which she responded to him, Mr. Connolly said that Johnson-Lowe would also threaten to publish the private images of her online.
Then, he gave her photos from his phone showing that he had shared the pictures with her brother and another guy on Facebook out of anger.
When she proposed calling the police, the threats persisted, and he seemed “amused,” the court heard.
She had a new relationship by December of last year, but she kept in touch with Johnson-Lowe out of fear.
The lady came down in tears and informed the jail that he had a phone in his cell after one phone conversation in which he threatened to murder her and her kid. The gadget was not found during the search.
According to Mr. Connolly, “It was never recovered and he kept sending her unpleasant texts, calling her a snitch.”
The victim’s mother then got a message from the defendant on January 6 of this year that included a voice recording of the victim sobbing. She then made the decision that she needed to call the police.
An officer discovered her phone was constantly being called by him despite him still being in jail when she reported his threats at the police station in January of this year.
She admitted to authorities that she was so terrified that she later relocated and changed her child’s school.
She said in her statement that she “100%” believed the threats and questioned why else she would have reported them to the police, moved homes, and switched schools.
Johnson-Lowe was “not thinking straight” and “got somewhat fascinated” with the victim, according to Asma Khan, the defendant’s attorney.
Following his release on January 28, Johnson-Lowe, of Boyton Close in Hornsey, north London, was detained by police.
Later, he entered a guilty plea to making a threat to murder, sending a harmful message, and revealing sexually explicit photos.
However, the court heard that after being remanded in detention to await sentencing, he continued to break the prison’s mobile phone restrictions, with gadgets discovered in his cell twice in April and June.
Although Johnson-“attacks” Lowe’s on the victim were not physical, Judge Robert Lazarus told him during his sentence on Monday that they had been “emotional and psychological with aim to maximize anxiety and misery.”
The court said, “She was providing you with love, care, and affection under situations where others would prefer to have no contact with you.”
Despite the fact that it’s unclear if she was aware of anything about your family background, you were a long-term prisoner with a history of violence.
“You consistently engaged in a campaign of denigration and humiliation against her,” the judge said.
Judge Lazarus also said that the father of one’s letter of apology to the court was “not a real representation” of him.
You can modify your demeanor quite a bit by turning on the charm when it’s convenient for you, he added.
He was given a jail term of almost three years and a restraining order by the court.
Following the terrible killing of Mr. Bent, who was slashed in the chest with a Rambo-style knife by then-16-year-old Vasilios Ofogeli outside Gallery nightclub in Maidstone, Kent, in the early hours of August 25, 2019, Johnson-Lowe was one of nine men imprisoned in April 2020.
Many of the individuals participating in the general violence that erupted were members of Mostack’s formal escort.
Mr. Bent, a 21-year-old Lambeth, south London resident studying business studies and soon-to-be father, slumped from the 21 centimeter-deep chest wound and passed away there.
The next day, while performing at a festival, singer Bradley paid respect to his cousin by urging the audience to observe a moment of quiet in his honor.
Four males were stabbed by Ofogeli in 73 seconds. Lucas Baker was the first victim, being stabbed in the shoulder from behind.
After then, Patrick Silva-back Conceicao’s was stabbed three times, breaking his spine and puncturing a lung. Then, Ofogeli struck Joshua Robinson, who was laying on the ground, with the 23-cm-long blade, striking him in the leg and buttock.
During the commotion, additional individuals attacked several of the victims who had been stabbed.
Finally, Ofogeli used the knife behind his back to attack Mr. Bent, who he had previously been observed confronting.
Following their admission of violent disorder in the event, Johnson-Lowe and eight other people—Ryan Lowe-White, Ali Aziz, Nathaniel Small, Mohamed Gelani, Darien Thompson, Yusuf Aweys, Kaline Riley, and Rheo Lawrence—were all sentenced to prison.
None of the stabbings included Johnson-Lowe in any way.