Traffic warden threatened to cut off woman’s fingers in debt threat
ATRAFFIC warden has been jailed after threatening to cut off a woman’s fingers with secateurs unless her brother paid an £8,000 debt.
Martin Horton, 43, was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday after pleading guilty to blackmail, possession of a blade and possession of an offensive weapon.
The defendant drove to Bedwas, Caerphilly, from his home in Cornwall via Stoke-on-Trent to carry out the offences. The court heard that he barged into the home of 20-year-old Claudia Hill-Williams in Cherry Tree Close on August 5 while her parents were out and threatened to cut her fingers off unless her brother, Mark Mayo, paid an £8,000 debt.
Prosecutor Thomas Robert said: “There was a knock at the door and when Ms Hill-Williams went to check there was no-one there.
“She went upstairs, taking her dog, but the defendant had entered the property by the rear patio doors. He shouted ‘hello’ and Ms Hill-Williams went downstairs. The defendant was wearing a green plastic glove and he said he was looking for her brother.
“She told him her brother didn’t live there, but he became aggressive. He walked towards her, closed the patio door and said, ‘I am not going to leave’.
“He pulled out some secateurs and threatened her with it.
“He said he wanted to cut her brother’s fingers off and if he couldn’t do that he would cut her fingers off. He said he had done it before and he enjoyed doing it. After seeing a photo of Mr Mayo’s son, he made a similar threat to cut his fingers off.”
Horton told Ms Hill-Williams to call her father and demanded £8,000.
He then left the property but made Ms Hill-Williams give him her phone number so he could tell her when he was coming back for the money.
When Ms Hill-Williams’ parents returned he approached them, telling them they owed him £8,000 and he pulled out the secateurs again.
Shortly afterwards the police arrived and Horton was arrested.
He said he was in debt and had decided to collect a debt that Mr Mayo allegedly owed his stepdaughter, who lived in Stoke-onTrent.
Defence barrister Jeffrey Jones said his client had not been in trouble with the law apart from a conviction for affray in 1997.
Sentencing, Recorder of Cardiff Judge Eleri Rees said: “Nothing can justify your actions on that night.”
Horton, of Fortescue Place, Lostwithiel, Cornwall, was sentenced to two years and nine months in jail and was made subject to a restraining order.