Love rat has his jail term cut
ALOVE rat who barricaded himself in a family home and threatened to blow it up after his girlfriend dumped him has won a cut in his jail sentence.
Michael Farnworth’s ‘bizarre’ actions on Wordsworth Close in Oswaldtwistle prompted armed police, negotiators and firefighters to be called to the scene.
The ‘ stubborn’ joiner also bombarded his partner with 1,300 text messages after she broke off their six year relationship when she overheard him boasting he had cheated without realising his phone had called her.
The Observer reported in October how he pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court to criminal damage, threats to cause criminal damage and harassment.
He was jailed for 16 months with a five-year restraining order.
The judge who jailed him described his behaviour as ‘ attention seeking, manipulative and selfish’.
However a hearing at London’s Appeal Court this week heard how the jail sentence imposed was too tough and has now been reduced.
Farnworth’s lawyers pointed to the potential impact on his joinery business and his previous good character.
Mr Justice Openshaw said the 42 year old’s crimes were ‘triggered by a stubborn and unreasonable refusal to accept the relationship was over’ and his threats were ‘ manipulative and self-indulgent’.
But he said the court was ‘persuaded’ his sentence was too tough and it was imprisonment itself ‘that would punish him and deter him, rather than the length of sentence’.
The judge, who was sitting with Judge Christopher Moss QC, reduced Farnworth’s jail term to 12 months.
The Observer previously reported how Farnworth, latterly of Salford, was involved in a three-and-a-half hour stand off with police on June 9 this year, in which a crowd of nearly 80 people had gathered on the street, before officers forced entry into the house. There were eight police constables, two vans, four cars, mounted officers, armed police, an ambulance and fire engine at the scene.
An earlier hearing heard how he was under the influence of amphetamines and was initially ‘quite pleasant and reasonable’, however his conduct then changed and became ‘quite erratic’.