Ex-McDonald's worker threatened to rape and kill colleagues

Rowland Archer-Jones sent the horrendous messages in the early hours of the morning following a disagreement with management at the McDonald’s restaurant where he worked.

The 30-year-old told the two women in extremely graphic details the pain and abuse he wanted to inflict on them before slitting their throats and watching them die.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Archer-Jones targeted the two women after he lost his job at the takeaway chain.

Emma Atkinson, prosecuting, read out the messages which were sent to the women, much of the content is too graphic to print, when she outlined the case against the defendant.

She said: “It would appear that he had been dismissed from his employment following an investigation which was carried out by one of the victims and seems to have been the instigator for these particularly vile messages to be sent.

“The message contained threats of torture, serious sexual violence and threats to kill.”

Miss Atkinson read out both messages to the judge detailing the level of violent threats made to both victims.

She said the messages were sent on a fake Facebook account which had been set up by the defendant.

The court head how the messages had left the victims terrified that Archer-Jones would track them down and carry out the vile threats.

Rowland Archer-Jones (Image: Cleveland Police)

Archer-Jones, of Station Avenue South, Fence Houses, Houghton-le-Spring, pleaded guilty to two charges of making threats to kill and two charges of sending malicious communication from February 13, 2023.

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John Nixon, mitigating, said his client maintains that he was not sacked from his job at McDonald’s but accepts that he sent the messages to his former colleagues a year after he asked for a transfer to another branch.

“It is utterly inexplicable, there is no logic to them (the messages),” he said. “In the pre-sentence report it says that alcohol was an aggravating feature which plainly clouded his judgement, dreadfully on that day.”

Judge Francis Laird KC sentenced Archer-Jones to two years in custody and issued him with indefinite restraining orders to protect his victims “Over a short period of time you sent malicious communications to both women containing threats to kill in the most vile manner,” he said.

“Understandably, both women took those threats very seriously. Anyone reading them, let alone someone receiving them, would consider the person who sent them is a highly violent and dangerous individual.”