Dad of eight threatened to stab neighbours in drunken row

A DAD of eight “at war with neighbours” was sentenced, after threatening to stab a couple and their children.

Lee Ferguson, 33, of Meadow Bank, Holway, Holywell, Flintshire, was convicted of affray, following a trial, Mold Crown Court heard.

Prosecuting Jade Tufail, said Ferguson was in the street, on Meadowbank, in the early hours of October 17, 2019, appeared drunk and was arguing with a number of people.

People told him to go home, but he continued shouting and threatened a couple, made abusive comments towards them and said he was “going to stab them and their children.”

The police attended, many people were in the street and there were “tensions on all sides”, said Ms Tufail, and Ferguson was arrested. He told officers after “he could remember very little of what had happened.”

Defending, Philip Clemo said the defendant was disappointed with the jury’s verdict, but accepted it and would engage with a package of “interventions and reforms” to help him, proposed by the Probation Service.

Judge Nicola Jones sentenced Ferguson

to an 18-month community order, with two programmes to attend – one an alcohol treatment programme of six months.

Judge Jones also gave him a oneyear restraining order not to approach a local woman. There was no order for costs or compensation.