Jury told of hammer threat in rent row

TWO DENY BLACKMAIL

A WEST Bridgford tenant was told super glue would be poured down his throat after two men turned up at his home in a rent row, a jury heard.

Landlord Mark Bidmead, 47, of Gertrude Road, West Bridgford, persuaded his friend, Roy Abbott, to knock on the resident’s door, it was claimed.

He pretended to be someone else who wanted to collect the post of a previous tenant, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

The man opened the door and Bidmead allegedly forced his way in.

“Once in the flat, the Crown say, these two men assaulted and manhandled him,” said prosecutor Christopher Jeyes. “He was threatened with a hammer Bidmead brought with him, and threatened with super glue, that it would be poured down his throat”.

The flat was searched during the burglary on July 31 last year. An ipad and phone were stolen as security to make the tenant do what Bidmead wanted, it has been claimed.

“Which was, of course, to leave the flat as soon as possible,” said Mr Jeyes, as he outlined the prosecution case.

Then the man’s shorts fell down in the bathroom after an alleged struggle. Bidmead was said to have threatened him with a hammer and asked him to remove the rest of his clothing.

The landlord took photos with the man’s phone and asked him to behave indecently with himself and further embarrass him with “the threat that would be posted online for others to see”, said Mr Jeynes.

Both men have pleaded not guilty to aggravated burglary with a hammer and super glue and blackmail.

Afterwards, the pair left the flat but took the man’s door key with them.

This made it difficult for the man to feel safe in his flat any further, explained Mr Jeynes.

Before the incident, the men drank at the Stratford Haven pub “perhaps, you might think, to build up some Dutch courage”, he said.

Afterwards they returned to the same pub “but, unusually, they split up and one went a different way, so they weren’t seen to be walking together in the same street”.

The incident was reported to police. Bidmead was arrested at 5.20am the following morning. A search of his home found, in his garden, gloves, hammer and the glue. He made no comment to police questions.

Abbott, 52, of Kelfield Close, Basford, was also arrested. Phone messages on Bidmead’s handset led police in his direction.

Both men are of good character and have no previous convictions, the jury has been told. The trial continues