Axe-wielding dad told man ‘I’ll take your head’
LOUT CONFRONTED AFTER BOMBARDING EX-PARTNER WITH CALLS
A DAD-OF-SIX wielding an axe taped to his wrist told a man he would ‘take his head’ after being confronted over dozens of threatening calls.
Bolton Crown Court heard 32-year-old Craig Jeffrey made dozens of malicious phone calls to a mother who had questioned his expartner’s parenting skills over text.
Mark Brookes, prosecuting, told the court that the dad-of-six, who was still close to his former lover, rang a woman more than 60 times after she said his ex needed to ‘step up as a mother.’ He threatened to burn down the house she shared with her husband and daughter.
The woman confided in her friend, Lee Ollerton, about the threats, who then drove over to Jeffrey’s home in Townsfield Road, Westhoughton.
But when he arrived, Jeffrey opened the door with an axe taped to his right wrist.
Mr Brookes said: “The defendant went into a rage, and came out of the door with a glass bottle in his other hand.
“He told Mr Ollerton ‘I’ll take your head for knocking on my door, if you bring the police down I’ll take their heads too.’”
Jeffrey’s original threats to the woman had already been reported to police, and when an officer attended her home to an unrelated report involving damage to her car, Jeffrey phoned her again.
She handed the phone to the officer, where Jeffrey called him ‘Pc D***head,’ and invited him to perform sexual acts before using racial slurs to describe the officer and a social worker.
Julian King, defending, said Jeffrey offered ‘remorse and apologies for this serious behaviour.’
Jeffrey pleaded guilty to a range of offences carried out on March 26.
Sentencing Jeffrey to 32 months imprisonment, Judge Tina Langdale said: “There is no excuse for that vile behaviour.”
Jeffrey, who appeared in court via video-link from prison, was given a 16-month sentence for putting a person in fear of violence by harassment, and a 12-month sentence for threatening another with a bladed article.
He was handed four months imprisonment for a racially aggravated count of sending a communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety. All sentences must be served consecutively, totalling 32 months behind bars.
Upon hearing his sentence, Jeffrey swore multiple times, and stormed out of the camera shot.