HERE'S a selection of court cases featured in this week's Barnsley Chronicle:
***
A BARNSLEY man threatened to throw acid in the face of his former partner, a court was told.
Stephen Phillips, of Cemetery Road, Wombwell, appeared at Barnsley Magistrates’ Court to face a charge that he breached a restraining order by contacting Sarah Louise Cooper by telephone on several occasions in June this year.
The order had been put in place after he appeared in court earlier this year to face a charge of criminal damage to Miss Cooper’s home earlier this year.
Crown Prosecutor Chantelle Lowry-Green told the court that during one of the phone calls he had called Miss Cooper - who is the mother of his two young children - a slag and a prostitute, before threatening her that he would throw acid in her face.
It was then that Miss Cooper contacted police and Phillips was arrested.
He entered a guilty plea to harassment and breaching the restriction order at a previous court appearance.
However he denied making the threat to throw the acid.
But he was found guilty of doing so following a separate hearing when Miss Cooper’s version of what was said during the phone calls was accepted by a judge.
In mitigation his solicitor Chris Peace said Phillips had become angry when he discovered he had missed his six-year-old daughter’s sports day because Miss Cooper had not told him when it was taking place.
Regarding the threat to throw acid in Miss Cooper’s face, Mr Peace said: “He would never dream of hurting her.
“It was something he said in the heat of the moment when he became upset about missing the sports day.”
Phillips, who has been unemployed since sustaining serious injuries in a motorcycle accident, was sentenced to six weeks in prison suspended for 18 months.
He was made subject of a community order which means to complete a 20 day rehabilitation activity requirement and 100 hours of unpaid work.
He was also ordered to pay a total of £735 made up of a £620 contribution towards court costs and a £115 victim surcharge.
***
A MAN who went berserk at Barnsley Magistrates’ Court has been sent to prison.
John Bortoft got into an argument a with his girlfriend in the court’s waiting area on Monday afternoon. He shouted at her and she became upset and started to cry.
Bortoft was asked to leave the building by members of security staff. He refused, so two members of security staff ushered him outside. As he was taken through the door he took a can of beer from his pocket and threw it at the security staff who were standing in the foyer.
He then bent down and picked up a large piece of concrete which he hurled at the court’s large glass doors, narrowly missing the head of one of the security staff. The lump of concrete missed the doors but smashed into a sensor above the doors.
Police were called and Bortoft was arrested. He was back before the court on Wednesday. This time he pleaded guilty to criminal damage and threatening behaviour.
The court was told unemployed Bortoft was already subject to a suspended sentence for criminal damage. He also has a long list of previous convictions for similar offences.
In mitigation his solicitor Julian Brook told the court that Bortoft has a mental age of 12. Up until he was 20 his record was clean and he was employed by Remploy - a company which provided employment for people with special needs. But his offending started when the government scrapped Remploy leaving Bortoft with no prospects of gaining further employment.
Mr Brooke explained that Bortoft had been sleeping rough in a doorway the night before. He had trouble sleeping and drank ‘several litres of cider’ to help him sleep. He then asked a friend for a cigarette but had no idea the one he was handed contained the zombie drug ‘spice’.
The drug then made Bortoft become aggressive and caused his outburst. Mr Brook added: “He smoked the hand rolled cigarette thinking it was just that. “He has complex difficulties including a lack of accommodation.
“If he had accommodation he wouldn’t hang about the town centre with people who use spice.”
Bortoft was sent to prison for a period of 12 weeks. He was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £115.
***
A PROFOUNDLY deaf woman appeared at Barnsley Magistrates' Court charged with a burglary where violence was involved.
Jane Hart of Wakefield Road is alleged to have taken a quantity of cash and a mobile phone belonging to Dean Ackroyd.
Hart, aged 44, did not enter a plea.
She was remanded into custody and will next appear at Sheffield Crown Court on October 19.
***
