Gas addict who attacked man is banned from town
JON MACPHERSON
ABUTANE gas addict who punched a vulnerable man in his sheltered accommodation after stealing cash from his wallet has been banned from entering Accrington.
Rebecca Jane Stevenson met the man in the town and started living with him at his home on Eagle Street, a court heard.
Blackburn Magistrates Court heard how the 21-year-old defendant walked into his flat at 12.30am on July 31 and approached him as he was lying down.
Prosecutor Catherine Allan said that she then took two £5 notes from his wallet and his flat keys before punching him twice to the head with ‘closed fists’.
In a victim statement, the man said: “I thought she ran out of gas which she inhales and wanted more.
“I asked her what she was doing and she hit me with force at the side of my head with a closed fist. It was hard. She hit me fast.
“I held my hands up to stop her and pushed her away. A minute later she hit me to the other side of my head hard.
“I think she really wanted to hurt me. She was screaming at me.”
The court heard how the victim, who is bipolar and classed as a ‘vulnerable adult’, suffered headaches for eight days after incident.
Ms Allan said in a separate incident Stevenson, who had taken vodka and butane gas, was arrested at Preston Bus Station on September 23 following concerns by staff and paramedics.
Stevenson was seen ‘trying to bite people’ and had to be restrained on the ground, the court was told.
Ms Allan said when she was being taken to hospital by ambulance Stevenson ‘ started to collect a large amount of phlegm and spit in her mouth and turned directly towards the officer and spat in his direction’.
The court was told that the officer ‘ managed to dodge the main part but droplets made contact with uniform and side of his cheek’.
In a statement, the officer said: “It was clearly aimed at myself.”
Stevenson, formerly of Accrington, Clayton-leMoors and Great Harwood, pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer and a bail act offence and found guilty after a trial of common assault and theft.
Defence solicitor Peter King said Stevenson, who served 13 days on remand in custody, has ‘very significant vulnerabilities’ and suffers from emotional unstable personality disorder, dyspraxia and dyslexia.
He said: “She has immoderate use of alcohol and butane gas which is her drug of choice. She has created these issues for herself.
“She was not aware of her behaviour that caused concern at the bus station. She got herself into such a state of intoxication after taking vodka and butane gas that she didn’t know where she was.
“She does not remember the spitting incident. She was trying to avoid being taken to hospital. In the cold light of day she is extremely remorseful.
“She has now moved away from the Accrington, Clayton-le-Moors and Great Harwood area where she previously resided and now wants to make a fresh start in Preston.”
A probation service officer said there had been a ‘marked improvement’ in Stevenson’s engagement with the probation service following a previous sentence and she ‘initially engaged well and attended Inspire’.
However the officer said the defendant ‘lives a very chaotic lifestyle’ and, after a decline in her engagement, is now ‘difficult to manage in the community’.
Mr King responded by telling the magistrates: “Just because she is difficult to manage in the community is not a good reason for saying it’s going to be impossible and not a good reason to go up the scale of sentencing tariff.”
Stevenson, now of Stocks Road, Preston, was given a 12-month community order with a ninemonth drug rehabilitation requirement, a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement, a 12-month restraining order, a onemonth exclusion order not to enter Accrington and ordered to pay a total of £110 compensation.