A NORTH Wales publisher yesterday claimed to have received death threats after one of his writers leapt on the race leader in the Olympic Games men's marathon. Former Catholic priest Corneilius Horan was given a 12-month suspended sentence after ambushing the Brazilian front-runner during the final stages of the race. He told officers he staged the disruption to "prepare for the second coming". Leslie Broad, of Deunant Books, Denbigh, who publishes Mr Horan's religious books on the internet, revealed he had been inundated with e-mails. He said: "We've had over 100 e-mails about Horan, about 75% from Brazil, the overwhelming majority of which were so foul and disgusting that they just got deleted. Of the rest, a few were decently written, and all those were replied to, and the others were death threats. "It's nice to see life being so even handed - the criminal gets a suspended sentence, the athlete gets a bronze medal, the de Coubertin medal and elevation to hero status, and I get the death threats. "The interest in this absurd incident has been worldwide. I've spoken to newspaper people from the USA and Brazil and have talked to a Japanese TV news programme and film company in London wanting to do a documentary. "The firm who host our web-site tell me they've never had a site that's had anything even close to the amount of traffic in a single day that we had on Monday - we totted up around 120,000 hits on Monday alone." Meanwhile sales of the books written by Horan have soared. Mr Broad said: "About 80% of the sales have been in America. They have been coast to coast - from New York across to Los Angeles. "You can't really gloat about sales when they have been achieved as a result of such dis-graceful publicity." He is hoping to persuade Horan that all profits from sales be donated to charity. Mr Broad said his company became involved with Horan over a year ago, when he approached Deunant Books to take on his biblical prophesy works. Brazilian runner Vanderlei de Lima was pushed into the crowd by Horan about four miles from the end of the race. He was leading at the time but finished with a bronze medal. The International Olympic Committee awarded de Lima the Pierre de Coubertin Medal to recognise his "exceptional demonstration of Olympic values", but refused Brazil's request to change the result. Horan, 57, also ran on to the track at the 2003 British Grand Prix wearing a tam-o'shanter and kilt. He was given a two-month jail sentence for aggravated trespass. | 
