A FORMER special constable who sent a midnight coded bomb threat to Trafford Magistrates' Court was today starting a six month jail term.

Mother of two Sharon Elliot, 32, had been due to attend the court the next day in a battle for her children, but was frightened of her ex-partner and didn't want to face him.

Burnley Crown Court heard how a "full scale alert" was put into effect, roads sealed off and the court and area around it searched.

Elliot sobbed in the dock as a judge told her he understood the tension she must have felt and that she had been scared but she could have simply not turned up at court.

He went on: "What you should not have done was to use your knowledge of the code word to give authenticity to a bomb hoax, especially at this time.

"Bomb hoaxes are very serious and the public expects that people who make them should go to prison."

Elliot, of Pennine Road, Bacup, admitted making the hoax call on April 23 and had been committed for sentence by the Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Magistrates. She had no previous convictions.

Judith McCullough, prosecuting, said just before midnight a call was received at the 999 control room in Lancashire from a mobile phone.

The message was that there was a bomb due to go off at the magistrates' court at 11am the next day.

A code was then given which added substantial authenticity to the threat. A full scale alert was put into effect and after enquiries about the phone number, police later went to the defendant's home.

They knocked on the door, didn't get a response but when they dialled the mobile number, a phone rang behind the door.

Miss McCullough said Elliot was arrested and, when cautioned, said she had done a stupid thing when drunk.

She was taken to the police station, interviewed and said she had been harrassed by her ex-partner and hadn't wanted to face him.

She said she had hoped the court would be shut after the bomb threat. Elliot told officers she had picked up the code word when she had been a special constable.

Andrew Lawson, defending, said the call had been a cry for help. There had been extreme acrimony over the last two or three years between the defendant and her former partner.

Her previously fragile character had become worse and she had become depressed. She committed the offence on the spur of the moment when she had quite clearly become wound up and couldn't face going to court the next day.

Elliot had now got married and her husband stood by her. All the things which were against her on the night of the offence were no longer there.

Mr Lawson said by making the phone call, the defendant had placed in jeopardy the very future of the childen that she was trying to secure. She had now put them at risk.