A MAN who threatened to kill "Lotto rapist" Iorworth Hoare has been jailed indefinitely for public protection because of his own chilling criminal record.

Peter Oates, 43, who was the subject of an indefinite hospital order, sent the £7m jackpot winner bullets and a letter saying a professional hitman had been hired and ordered him to leave his exclusive home on the outskirts of Newcastle.

During the trial Hoare, now known as Edward Thomas, spoke in public for the first time since his release from a 16-year sentence for rape.

Hoare, who won a £7.2m Lotto jackpot while on weekend release from prison in August 2004, said he was nervous whenever he left his £700,000 mansion on the plush Darras Hall estate in Ponteland, Northumberland.

Oates, who had denied making threats to kill, travelled from his secure hostel in Brixton, south London, to the North-East to post the letter which was was intercepted by post office staff before it was delivered.

The trader, who defended himself, had a history of mental illness and a record of serious offending stretching back more than 20 years.

Judge David Wood, sentencing at Newcastle Crown Court, said Oates had been jailed twice and was subject to a hospital order in 1993.

He said Oates, who works voluntarily for the mental health charity Mind, had planned his latest offence against the Lotto rapist.

You drove all the way from London having written a letter to him which suggested that professional people had been hired to kill him, the judge said.

The judge said he believed there was a risk of serious harm to the public and jailed Oates indefinitely.