Countdown contestant sent death threats to presenter

'I'LL KILL RILEY AND ANYONE ELSE I CAN FIND'

- By ADAM EVERETT

A FORMER Countdown contestant sent a string of death threats to presenter Rachel Riley after developing a menacing grudge.

Laura Greenwood made it to the quarterfinals of the Channel 4 game show before being sectioned, after which the convicted arsonist began bombarding online fan forums with vile posts.

These criticised the programme for descending into “kid’s stuff and b****cks” and accused a long serving producer of being a paedophile and a “slimy weirdo”. A string of further abusive messages then threatened it was a “question of when, not if” he and Ms Riley would be murdered, with one ranting diatribe stating: “When I'm ready, it’s him and Riley first and then as many as I can possibly take before I go to prison.”

Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday that Greenwood, formerly of Bedford Street South in Liverpool city centre’s Georgian Quarter, appeared on five episodes of Countdown during 2012 and 2013. The 42-year-old, who was then known as Rachel Moran, was initially said to have completed the filming process “with no issues” But Jonathan Keane, prosecuting, described how producer Damian Eadie received a two-page “ranting” letter from Greenwood around two months later. This note, which had a return address of mental health inpatient facility the Broad Oak Unit, was ultimately disposed of by staff, with no further action being taken at this stage.

More than 10 years later, during December 2023, Greenwood then posted on an online forum on Channel 4’s website “accusing Mr Eadie of spying on her and accusing him of editing her final episode in a very peculiar way”.

The producer of 28 years was also branded a “paedophile”, a “nasty fat c***” and a “slimy weirdo”.