LONDON - A 72-year-old woman pleaded guilty today to sending hoax packages containing white powder to Prime Minister Tony Blair and his family in a protest against the war in Iraq, police said.
Shirley Rita Freed, from Sussex, southern England, admitted five charges of making hoax threats last year involving noxious substances under Britain's anti-terrorism laws.
She also confessed to a further 38 similar offences for which she was not separately charged.
One letter contained a note calling Blair a war criminal for "murdering thousands of Iraqi babies".
Freed sent letters addressed to Blair, his wife Cherie and son Euan, to his 10 Downing Street office in central London.
The packages contained newspaper cuttings and white powder which was later identified as sugar, weed killer and other chemicals.
Police traced the letters to Freed's house where they found a bag containing scissors, glue, envelopes and gloves. They found 10 more letters addressed, stamped and ready for posting.
Freed will be sentenced later.
- REUTERS
British woman admits mailing powder to Blair
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