A former magistrate faces five years in jail after bombarding another JP with a torrent of abusive emails.

Peter Cartwright sent 11,000 emails in 17 days, mostly including "virtually childlike strings of obscenities", to Michael Leigh after a business deal turned sour. The messages, sent to Leigh's office computer, were traced by police to Cartwright's Blackpool home. Last week he pleaded guilty at Lancaster Magistrates Court to sending the hate mail.

He will be sentenced on March 24 -- and the stalking conviction under the Protection from Harassment Act could bring the ex-Blackpool magistrate a five-year spell in the slammer.

Cartwright has also admitted to failing to disclose earnings while signing on. The DSS found he had been collecting disability payments for a year while working as a car alarm and radio fitter. Leigh, MD of an auto electrical business in Blackpool, said the experience was "as upsetting as someone following you or phoning you." "I think the law should be reviewed as far as the Internet is concerned," The Daily Mail reported. ®

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