Thug terrorised two strangers in homes
A DRUNK yob who burst into two strangers’ homes and terrorised their owners has avoided jail.
Adam Luke Barrass, 25, barged into the properties on Belfield Road in Accrington late at night along with a woman, a court heard.
In one incident the offenders grabbed hold of a female victim’s arms and hair and tried to drag her out of her own house before throwing pictures and flowers around a room.
Barrass, of Maple Drive, Oswaldtwistle, pleaded guilty to affray and four separate offences of theft.
The woman, whose name was not mentioned in court, was given a conditional caution by police and not charged with affray despite being the ‘main player’, the court heard.
The offences also placed Barrass in breach of a suspended prison sentence order issued in May - after he assaulted his own father. He was given a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months, with an alcohol treatment requirement and a rehabilitation activity requirement.
Stephen Parker, prosecuting, told the court how the offences took place at around 10.15pm on September 7.
In one case the female victim was ‘barged into the hallway’ by the offenders, the court was told.
Mr Parker said she asked them four or five times to leave but they then grabbed her by her hair and pulled her out of the house.
They both started throwing pictures and flowers around before the woman talked about ‘going upstairs to look for anything to nick’ and Barrass threatened the victim not to cause them trouble.
Both offenders were arrested on the street. When police interviewed Barrass he said he had no recollection of what happened and said he was ‘very embarrassed and shocked as to what alcohol can do to a person’.
Defence barrister Timothy Storrie said his behaviour was linked to his ADHD and Asperger Syndrome and that he has ‘prominent vulnerabilities’. The court also heard how alcohol treatment requirement appointment letters as part of his previous suspended sentence had not being sent to him.
Mr Storrie said: “In combination those conditions promote his presentation as disinhibited, easily distracted and sometimes uneven in his ability to comply with a regime of medication. Those factors must significantly diminish the level of culpability.”
Judge Simon Medland QC criticised the police for giving Barrass’s accomplice a conditional caution.
Prosecutor Stephen Parker said the woman had just turned 18, was of previous good character and added that the decision was ‘made entirely by the police’.
Judge Medland said the offences were ‘absolutely outrageous’ and that the victims must have been ‘absolutely terrified’. He said: “There’s absolutely no logical reason whatsoever why the young woman was dealt with so leniently.”
Sentencing Barrass, he said: “In fairness to you the alcohol treatment requirement hadn’t been able to work because of some administrative failure which wasn’t your fault. Just because you have these conditions doesn’t mean that you don’t need to be very careful yourself about how you behave. It’s not a free ticket to behave as