AftEr Spice addict banned from city centre
A SPICE addict has been banned from Manchester city centre for two years for openly smoking drugs, abusing the public and aggressively begging.
Rough-sleeper Priestley Cleworth, 24, was barred from Piccadilly Gardens earlier this year for similar crimes. After repeatedly breaching that order – and threatening a car park manager – further action has now been taken.
Cleworth will be jailed if he enters the city centre.
Council bosses said he had ‘persistently’ refused to engage with homelessness services – and insisted the move was a ‘last resort.’
Following a string of incidents in which Cleworth verbally abused members of the public, shop workers and police, aggressively asked for money and openly smoked Spice in Piccadilly Gardens, he was issued with an official warning in January. He was then banned from the area a few weeks later after repeatedly ignoring the warning.
On May 13, he abused and threatened the manager of the NCP car park at The Printworks, leading to an interim injunction banning him from the whole city centre. Cleworth breached that order seven times and was arrested on each occasion.
At a Manchester Civil Justice Centre hearing, Cleworth admitted the breaches and was handed a two-year injunction banning him from anywhere within the inner ring-road.
Parallel suspended sentences mean that if he breaks the ban, he will be jailed for at least a week.
The court also ordered him to attend drug services for an assessment and help with his Spice addiction. Failure to attend will also be a breach of his injunction.
Manchester town hall’s lead on crime and community safety, Coun Nigel Murphy, said: “We and our partner organisations in the city’s homeless charter are committed to providing homeless people in the city with the help and support they need to get off the streets and move forward in their lives, including treatment to deal with any substance misuse issues.
“But we cannot and will not tolerate individuals abusing and harassing members of the public while refusing all offers of support.
“Taking court action is a last resort, but in this case we were left with little option but to do so to make Cleworth confront both his behaviour and his drug use and to protect the public.”