Man threatened to slice woman’s throat after drinking binge
A GARDENING company boss drank eight pints of cider before threatening to “slice the throat” of a woman in a driving dispute and being abusive to a police officer.
Dad-of-two Benjamin Blu Price, 29, had spent the day drinking before his outburst of “appalling behaviour”. At the time of the offending he was on a suspended sentence for drink-driving.
His barrister told Swansea Crown Court the defendant was “embarrassed and ashamed” of his behaviour.
Dean Pulling, prosecuting, said Price first came to the attention of police in Neath on the morning of July 19 this year following a disturbance at the home of his ex-partner’s parents in Cimla.
The court heard officers spent much of the day looking for the defendant and found him that evening after reports a car had crashed into a number of parked vehicles in Ivy Road near Fairyland.
Mr Pulling said Price had been a passenger in the car which collided with others at the roadside and had begun abusing the owner of one of the damaged vehicles when she came out of her house to see what was happening.
The court heard the defendant swore at the woman and told her to shut her face or “I will come back and slice your throat and your family’s”.
Police arrived and arrested Price but he began struggling with officers and managed to escape and run away. He jumped a wall and was chased across the Neath Cricket Club pitch before being caught “out of breath and leaning against a wall” in an alleyway.
The court heard he again resisted officers and eventually had to be taken to the ground so he could be cuffed. During the struggle he called a PC a “fat pig”, a “f****t”, and a “f***ing German” and made threats against his
family.
He was further arrested and taken to Neath police station where he subsequently admitted swearing at police – though he complained officers had been twisting his arms – and said he had drunk eight pints of Strongbow Dark Fruits cider that day.
Price, formerly of Oakhill Park in Skewen but now of Harle Street, Neath, admitted two public order offences and resisting an officer. The court heard he has previous convictions including for assault, public order matters, possession of cocaine, and driving while over the alcohol limit.
At the time of the July offending he was subject to a suspended sentence imposed in January this year for attacking a man outside Neath’s Arches nightclub.
James Hartson, for Price, said his client was
the father of two young children who ran his own landscape gardening business and was “embarrassed and ashamed” by his conduct.
The barrister said Price had been drinking throughout the day in question and said “the defendant’s criminal record is almost exclusively down to his involvement with alcohol”.
Judge Catherine Richards told the defendant he didn’t need a lecture from her for him to realise how “appalling” his behaviour had been.
She told Price it was clear he had learned nothing from his previous alcohol-related convictions, adding: “You are 29 years of age and it is about time this behaviour stopped.”
Price was jailed for a total of 28 weeks and will serve up to half in custody before being released on licence.