Countdown contestant sent string of death threats to Rachel Riley
Laura Greenwood ranted: 'When I'm ready, it's him and Riley first and then as many as I can possibly take before I go to prison'
Adam Everett Crown Court Reporter
19:03, 17 Jul 2025
Laura Greenwood appearing on Countdown(Image: Countdown/Channel 4)
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 quarter finals 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 this afternoon, Thursday, 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".
This was followed by a further post on January 18 last year, when Greenwood again criticised the editing of the Countdown episode and called him a paedophile, as well as a "fat, baldy c*** who she would beat the living s*** out of any day", adding: "Nine out of 10 bald men are like that, in my experience. Strange, weak, pervert sex pests. Apologies if you happen to be an exceedingly rare good baldy."
A further two messages were then posted to the website on January 20 2024. In one, at 1.25am, Greenwood "said she would love to see Mr Eadie again to f***ing smack him in person" and warned: "It's the end of the f***ing world anyway, so f*** you all, you weird, fat c***s. Up yours."
The second post, at 1.53am, read: "They don't want to play Countdown anymore, it's kid's stuff and b****cks. I'm going to kill any bad nonce, with Mr Eadie being top of that list. I'd really rather just bite the c*** to death to be honest."
Months later, in the early hours of July 11, Greenwood went on to complete a contact form on Channel 4's website. Using the contact name "Suck My Fat One" alongside the fake email address "
suckmyfatone@tragic.dead.moron", the accompanying message read: "I will be killing that mountainous psychopath Eadie and Riley and anyone else I can find connected to Channel 4. Make sure the fat c*** knows. Mission from the purple god mate. F***ing believe."
Another message was then sent via the same means on July 12. This time using the contact name "Doctor Lecter" and the email address of "get@f***ked.c***", Greenwood wrote: "We f***ing well will be killing Eadie and Riley and whomsoever else clearly does not belong in this, or any other, cosmos.
"Make sure that fat c*** knows and make sure the little fat paedophile c*** knows too, and the little skinny paedophile c*** and the taller, fundamentally utterly repugnant, skinny paedophile c***. Its not a question of if, it's a question of when.
"F***ing make sure, that disgusting, horrifically fat, mad c*** paedophile parasite knows. Dead meat. All of the sausage brain network. Not a f***ing whack job effort. We will kill as many as we possibly can and, mark our words, we are very f***ing hard and skilful indeed mate. Mate sure that fat c*** psycho moron super baldy knows."
A third contact form, under the name "Granite Lecter" and using the email address "f***@you.zombiepaedophiles", on July 19 said: "Make sure that tragic, morbidly obese, super baldy paedophile moron f***ing knows. I will be coming to kill him and Riley first.
"Make sure that horrendously evil, bad p***y fat c*** f***ing knows. When I'm ready, it's him and Riley first and then as many as I can possibly take before I go to prison, which I don’t give a f*** about because going to prison would be a huge move up in the world for me. Make sure that terrible, evil fat c*** f***ing knows."
Police subsequently visited the then HMP Altcourse inmate on December 13 2024 in relation to the messages, at which stage Greenwood told officers that Mr Eadie "drove her mad" and alleged he had "spied on her", adding: "I'm the victim. I have ranted, I flipped my lid. Absolute zombie, never hurt anybody in my life."
Greenwood has two previous convictions for seven offences. This includes a two year and eight month sentence handed down in March this year for arson, criminal damage, harassment and malicious communications matters, in which a gas engineer who attended the defendant's property was called a "fat paedophile" and warned that his "face would be smashed in".
Isabella Denn-White, defending, told the court: "Ms Greenwood was on Countdown in 2012. She made it into the quarter final, but was sectioned before she could get any further. She blamed being sectioned on the producer and the actions of those on the show. She thought that this was to get her off the show and felt like she was being hypnotised while on the show.
"Her life spiralled negatively. She became homeless and moved between hostels. She tells me that she was over what happened on the show, but things she has suffered since, she says, caused her to explode and tip over again. She felt that people were wronging her from all aspects of life. She ended up committing these offences and other offences spanning the same period.
"She says, now, that she is in a better place. She is going through counselling. She is at the point of forgiving and not having the same feelings of grievances. She does want to get out of prison and move on with her life.
"She has suffered adversity throughout her adult life. She suffered significant trauma, and this resulted in suicide attempts. She transitioned in her adult life from male to female and has suffered a number of difficulties in relation to that, including being remanded for a period of time in a male prison.
"She is much happier and more settled in the place that she is in now. She does wish to express her remorse. She assures me that she will not do anything like this again.
"Given that nothing seemed to arise from this, I would suggest that they were empty threats. She has never done anything physically to them, more expressing her anger and hatred to them over the computer."
Greenwood, who appeared via video link to HMP Downview wearing a blue cardigan over a grey t-shirt and sporting long brown hair and glasses, admitted three counts of sending a communication conveying an offensive communication and three of sending a message threatening death or serious harm. Judge Brian Cummings KC imposed a further prison sentence of six months, which will run consecutively to the current prison term of two years and eight months.
Laura Greenwood(Image: Merseyside Police)
