Man threatened neighbour
JUDGE BLASTS KNIFE SENTENCE
A THUG who threatened a neighbour with a rock and then a knife has been locked up for a year after he admitted threatening behaviour and having a knife in a public place.
But a judge said Luke Barlow, 20, should have faced the more serious charge of affray which carries a possible three-year sentence,
He criticised the Crown Prosecution Service for imposing the lesser charge, saying even “a first-year law student” would have realised it should have been affray.
Barlow, of Caerwyn, Llangefni, who had been in trouble with the law since the age of 12, was sent to a young offenders’ institution for a year.
A restraining order bans him from any contract with the neighbours, Michael and Michaela Innes, or from approaching within 150 metres of their home.
Ryan Rothwell, prosecuting, said last month Mr and Mrs Innes had been in their garden where one of their daughters was on a trampoline. There was a commotion at a neighbour’s property with Barlow shouting and swearing at his mother.
When Mr Innes received a phone call Barlow shouted at him and then, outside, confronted him with a rock, which Mrs Innes managed to get from him.
Then Barlow reappeared with a kitchen knife, five or six inches long, pointing it upwards towards Mr Innes.
After the couple had gone inside their house to phone the police Barlow rang the doorbell, a knife protruding from his back pocket. The couple had to take refuge in their own home, said Mr Rothwell.
In an impact statement Mr Innes said his emotions ranged between anger and sadness.
“I am anxious about what he may do to my family or my property,” he said. Both his children had been at home at the time of the incident, and Mrs Innes was anxious when he was out at work.
Ffion Tomos, defending, said Barlow had a string of GCSEs but had not used his intellectual ability. He had expressed remorse and wished to apologise to the neighbours.
Miss Tomos said: “He was in a bad mood, having an argument with his mother. Things got out of hand and he tells me he was never going to use the rock and the knife.”
Judge Heywood passed concurrent sentences of four months for threatening behaviour and 12 months for possession of the knife.
He added: “Why wasn’t he charged with making a threat with the knife? Why has he been charged in this derisory way, which limits my sentencing power? Heaven only knows what the public think.”
He ordered that the reviewing lawyer who drafted the charges should send him a written explanation within seven days.
The judge also praised the bravery of Mrs Innes who had stood between her husband and Barlow. He said he had no doubt that but for her action “violence would have ensued”.
A CPS spokesman said : “We note the comments of the judge in this case. All prosecution cases are required to meet the evidential and public interest standards set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors.”