Teen admits assault on care home boss
ACARE home owner was assaulted by a teenage bike thief when he asked a group of youths to leave the grounds.
Liam Huyton-Meadows pushed Rosebank Care Home boss Jonathan Cunningham MBE in the chest after the former Army major asked the group to move on.
Huyton-Meadows and three friends had been on their way to a park but after seeing an open gate outside the care home, on Leyland Road in Southport, which looks after adults with dementia and learning difficulties, thought it looked a “sick” place to hang about, Sefton Magistrates’ Court was told.
After they ignored his requests to leave, Mr Cunningham grabbed one the group’s bike with two hands in an attempt to turn it around, prompting an angry reaction from Huyton-Meadows, who pushed him with two hands.
Huyton-Meadows, of Queens Road, Southport, now 18, pleaded guilty to assault as well as to theft in a separate incident in which he stole a £500 bicycle.
In February, HuytonMeadows stole the bike from outside Southport College, before taking it to Sandhills train station to give to another boy. Lisa Toohey, defending, said: “He was asked to do it and naively he did.
“He didn’t make any money from that.” A probation report prepared for the magistrates later explained that HuytonMeadows had been contacted on social media by someone who previously lived in Southport who threatened him with violence if he didn’t steal a bike for him. He was suspended from college for a week after that incident but has since completed his electrical engineering course and now works as a chef in Southport.
A probation officer said: “He is ashamed and remorseful for this behaviour, explaining he felt under pressure to take the bike.”
The teenager has no previous convictions and was 17 when both incidents took place but was treated as an adult in court as his appearance came after he turned 18.
Huyton-Meadows was given a 12-month community order, fined £585 and ordered to do 40 hours of unpaid community work.