A jealous guy, a girl, and a £450,000 yacht
JEALOUS PARTNER SET MILLIONAIRE’S BOAT ADRIFT
A JEALOUS lover who cut the moorings of a millionaire’s boat because he thought he was having an affair with his girlfriend has been told by a judge he “must get help”.
David Taylor set the £450,000 vessel adrift on the Tyne while owner Michael Hay and Taylor’s partner Hannah Brookes were chatting on board.
The 54-year-old then also cut free Mr Hay’s smaller, unmanned boat, from its mooring on Newcastle Quayside, sending it floating towards Ouseburn.
A court heard as Mr Hay tried to get his 60ft vessel under control, he was forced to watch helplessly as his £100,000 Sealine 38 drifted past him, bouncing along the bankside.
Police, firefighters and officials from the Port of Tyne eventually managed to secure the unmanned boat, but more than £11,000 of damage had been caused, prosecutors said.
Former fireman Taylor last month pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal damage at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court but claimed he didn’t deliberately cut the ropes and cables but “accidentally loosened them”. But, after a Newton hearing, magistrates found the dad-offour had intentionally caused the damage and committed him to Newcastle Crown Court for sentence, where Taylor narrowly avoided prison but was told by Judge Robert Adams he “must get help” for mental health issues he believed were the trigger for his actions.
The judge said: “You must get help. I’m sure you now appreciate your reaction was completely unacceptable. You could have caused even greater damage than you caused and potentially people could have been hurt.”
The court was told Taylor had cut the moorings of both boats because he believed Ms Brookes, 26, was having an affair with Mr Hay, 58, an allegation they both deny.
Judge Adams added: “Hannah Brookes had known you and Mr Hay. I’m told she had only known you for five weeks and you had met her for a drink on the day in question at the Pitcher and Piano on the Quayside.
“There appears to have been an argument. You challenged her and certainly her relationship with Mr Hay. This whole incident appears, therefore, to be born out of jealousy on your part – an unreasonable jealousy.”
Taylor and Ms Brookes had met for a drink in the popular Quayside bar on the evening of November 29 last year when the argument broke out and the latter went to see Mr Hay on board his boat, called Coco, which was moored nearby.
The pair saw Taylor peering through the window as he stood on the pontoon and shortly after they realised they were drifting away, prosecutors said. Mr Hay, a married father-of-two, then saw Taylor next to his other boat, Vortex, and that too began to float off. The court heard Mr Hay was able to start the engine on Coco and, with the help of two police officers, secure it to a jetty. But Vortex began to float down the river, crashing into other vessels and fixings before being stopped by emergency services almost a mile downstream at the Cycle Hub, in Ouseburn. Neil Pallister, prosecuting, said almost £12,000 of damage was caused to Vortex and £1,500 to Coco. Taylor was handed a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work. Taylor, who lives in Trimdon Grange, in Teesside, but was originally living on a boat at St Peter’s Marina, in Newcastle, was also ordered to pay Mr Hay £3,000 in compensation, although Judge Adams said it remained open to Mr Hay to sue for the remaining costs that had been inflicted upon him.
This whole incident appears, therefore, to be born out of jealousy on your part... Judge Robert Adams