Overview
- Cooney pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to stalking with fear of violence stemming from a months-long campaign in 2015.
- Prosecutors said he bombarded the child with messages, issued graphic threats to kill and dismember her, and sent images of self-harm.
- He contacted the girl's school posing as a police officer and threatened her father, including claims of sending people to their home or arriving with a gun.
- He failed to attend a 2016 court hearing, lived illegally in the United States with theft convictions, and was arrested at Heathrow in November 2025 after deportation.
- Outlets report his prison term as either 44 months (Wirral Globe) or three years and six months (Liverpool Echo and Metro), alongside the 15-year no-contact order.