Leonard Cohen‘s former manager, Kelley Lynch, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison, with five years probation, after being found guilty of harassing the singer.
She will also have to attend anger management classes, psychological training and alcohol education sessions, Rolling Stone reports. In addition, Lynch is now banned from owning weapons for the next 10 years.
Lynch was last week also convicted of violating court orders forbidding her to contact Cohen after a campaign of expletive-strewn emails and letters.
Cohen severed all ties with Lynch in 2004 after accusing her of stealing $5 million from him, suing her in 2005. He had told the court that his former manager made up lies claiming he was a drug addict in order to destroy his reputation.
Cohen said that Lynch had accused him of tax evasion and perjury in a series of messages he claimed had made his life “a complete and utter living hell”. He added that the voicemail messages would sometimes be 10 minutes in length and that Lynch said he “needed to be taken down and shot”.
Lynch’s lawyer Nikhil Ramnaney had claimed that the messages were prompted by the loss of her career and that they were actually “cries for help”, rather than threats.
Cohen recently announced a one-off UK outdoor show for later this year. The singer, who released his 12th studio album ‘Old Ideas’ in January, will headline a new event put on by the promoters of Hop Farm Festival, which is named A Day At Hop Farm.
The show takes place on September 8 at Hop Farm Country Park in Kent and will have a capacity of around 10,000. Cohen will play a three-hour set and will also have a full supporting bill. It will be Cohen’s only UK show of his 2012 world tour.