Brutal past of builder jailed for kidnap bid
ABUILDER who used cocaine to try to lure a schoolgirl into his van, before a terrifying police chase into Southport, once nearly killed his girlfriend with a kitchen knife.
Robert Case was jailed recently for three years and one month at Liverpool Crown Court, for an incident which only ended after the chase along Formby Bypass ended when he crashed into a row of shops in Southport.
The court heard how the 35-year-old from Huyton had approached the terrified schoolgirl as he sat in his van on the Sefton Street area of Litherland, in October last year.
The girl refused to get into his van and a concerned member of the public alerted police.
Case, who was high on cocaine at the time, was pursued and tried to run down a police officer, rammed a patrol car and then raced through Formby and Southport before crashing into a shop front.
The builder even continued to drive at speed after a stop-stick device shredded his front tyres.
He was eventually stopped in Southport town centre, and arrested.
Case, of no fixed address, but originally from Huyton, admitted the attempted abduction of a child and dangerous driving, but denied he approached the girl with a sexual motive.
But Judge Elizabeth Nicholls ruled that his motives were “both sexual and sinister” and jailed him for 37 months.
The Visiter can now reveal that, in 2002, Case carried out a vicious knife attack on a young nursery school teacher outside her home in Bootle.
Case, then 22, lay in wait for his then girlfriend, armed with a knife. He then stabbed her in the back, heart and arm.
The victim suffered a stroke as a result of the attack and spent three months in hospital recovering.
She was left registered disabled.
In 2003, Julie Forsyth, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that Case and the woman had a turbulent relationship for about five years.
The court heard that Case met his former girlfriend outside McDonald’s in Page Moss to discuss a £200 debt but then produced a knife, which he said he was going to stab her new boyfriend with.
Case, then of Stockbridge Lane, Huyton, later attacked her outside her home.
He was initially charged with attempted murder but pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
Deborah Gould, defending him in the 2002 case, told the court that he felt “affection” for his exgirlfriend. She said: “He accepts his behaviour was wrong, he was consumed with passion and jealousy. He says he stabbed her to hurt her because she hurt him.”
Jailing Case for eight years, Judge David Lynch said: “This was not a sudden loss of will, it was a culmination of intimidation and violence towards the victim.
“It was carefully planned and vicious. She needs protecting from you and she needs protecting from herself.”
However, in 2005, Case, who was by that time out on remand, received another four years behind bars for threatening to kill her.
Judge Henry Globe, QC, the Recorder of Liverpool, said: “The [phone] calls were menacing in the extreme.
“There were many references to killing her and members of her family at some time in the future.”
After learning of the sentence, his victim’s mum said: “I’m made up with the sentence, but we will still be in fear when he is eventually released.”