Drunk woman with hammer and knives made threats to kill

A FOUL-mouthed drunk woman called her probation officer telling her she was carrying weapons and was on her way to kill her ex and his new partner.

Derby Crown Court heard Sharon Bennett took a carving knife and hammer to their home and used the latter to smash all of the windows of his car.

The 50-year-old’s hearing was told she also shouted and screamed for the couple to come out of the flat where she would kill them both.

Handing her a 13-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, Judge Jonathan Bennett said: “Whatever grievance you have you just can’t carry on like that. This was a serious matter, the threats you were making were chilling and would have been extremely frightening, particularly with those two weapons in your hands.

“You made it plain what you intended to do, it was a deeply concerning incident.”

Abigail Hill said the offences took place in Bown Close, Kilburn which was where the defendant was then living, on March 11.

She said Bennett’s probation officer called police telling them the defendant had phoned her saying she had a knife up her sleeve and a hammer in her hand and was going to kill her ex and his new partner.

Miss Hill said: “A short time later she was outside her ex-partner’s flat. She was drunk, shouting and swearing and the new partner saw the defendant was holding a carving knife”.

Miss Hill said while the incident was happening the new partner received a call from someone telling them the defendant was now smashing car windows with the hammer. Police arrived at Bennett’s home and found her on a sofa with a hammer and two knives.

Miss Hill said: “When she was told she was under arrest for the criminal damage of the car she became aggressive and used extremely offensive language.

“They were so concerned they used leg restraints on her and as she was taken into custody she said ‘yeah, yeah, I did it all.’

“But despite this she answered ‘no comment’ to the questions she was asked.”

Bennett pleaded guilty to two counts of making threats to kill, one count of criminal damage and two counts of possession of an offensive weapon.

She also admitted the offence put her in breach of a community order, imposed in December for assaulting an emergency worker - a custody nurse. Miss Hill read out a victim impact statement made by the defendant’s expartner.

In it he said: “As a result of this incident I feel nervous, suffer from anxiety and panic attacks.”

Benn Robinson, for Bennett, said since the incident last month his client is now living at her mother’s address, which was not read out in court. She has voluntarily sought help to tackle her alcohol consumption. As part of the suspended sentence, Bennett was handed a 120day alcohol monitoring programme and was ordered to carry out 20 rehabilitation sessions with the probation service. She must also pay £650 compensation and was handed a two-year restraining order.

This was a serious matter, the threats you were making were chilling.

Judge Jonathan Bennett