[ad_1]
Lewis Barnes, 25, had tried to smash his way through their common wall without success before forcing her front door, said Marc Atkins, prosecuting at York Crown Court.
In a seven-day crime spree, he also stole a tourist’s medication for heart and other conditions, threatened to sexually assault a woman police officer and vandalised several cars belonging to parents collecting children from their dance class.
Hospital staff refused to treat him after he threatened them and when asked to get out of an ambulance said he would throttle a medical professional with the cord of medical equipment.
Judge Simon Hickey said Barnes had shown “appalling behaviour,” and “mindless” violence and vandalism.
Barnes’ barrister Jordan Millican said Barnes had been having a “psychotic episode” when he had committed most of the offences during a three-day period.
The judge said Barnes had been taking cannabis and cocaine and the drugs could make people like him behave in that way.
Barnes, now of no fixed address, was jailed for three years. He pleaded guilty to burglary, two charges of theft and one of shoplifting on February 8, four of criminal damage and five public order offences.
Mr Atkins said the neighbour returned to her Scarborough flat on June 26 to find it smelling of urine. As well as her grandmother’s ashes, which had been kept in a bible, Barnes had stolen kitchen appliances including a fridge freezer and clothing. Most of the stolen items were found piled in Barnes’ flat, but not the ashes.
The judge said the loss of the ashes “must have caused immense distress”.
On June 22, Barnes had stolen a mirror, flat keys and other items, when he visited a friend’s home by invitation. On June 23 he stole a rucksack belonging to a tourist who had just checked into the Grand Hotel in Scarborough with his wife for five nights. Inside the rucksack, as well as the tourist’s medication, were his travel documents and his wallet.
Police found the rucksack with the medication in Barnes’ flat.
On June 26, Barnes menaced a father waiting in his car for his daughter after her dancing class and vandalised the vehicles of other parents in the same Scarborough street.
He threatened police and when they took him to Scarborough General Hospital he threatened staff and was so aggressive, he was refused medical treatment.
The same day he broke into his neighbour’s flat.
On June 28, members of the public called an ambulance because he was acting strangely and he threatened to slash a paramedic’s throat. With police help he was taken to Scarborough General Hospital and en route threatened to sexually assault a female police officer.
When hospital staff told him he didn’t need treatment, he refused to get out of the ambulance, urinated inside it and made the throttling threat.
On July 2, he damaged a toilet at the hospital while under police escort and used part of a leg brace to damage a police cell.
Mr Millican said Barnes lacked maturity. He had made efforts to curb his offending, but had not succeeded. He had believed the flat was unoccupied when he burgled it.
[ad_2]
