A Penrith man was hit on the head with a baseball bat and left bleeding during an attack in his own home.
Ashley Karl Fry (36), had started kicking the door of a Brunswick Road address on 15th February last year while the occupant was at home.
Fry initially made threats to “cave your heads in” and “use the bat on you”. He then warned: “Are you coming? If not, I will kill you.”
The householder opened his door in a bid to get rid of Fry, who then pushed his way in so violently that the door came off its hinges.
Around £400 damage was caused, Carlisle Crown Court heard, before Fry struck the man over the head with a baseball bat. “This caused a lump and bleeding,” said prosecutor Brendan Burke.
The man’s brother got hold of Fry in a head-lock. “Police were called but he disappeared by the time they arrived,” said Mr Burke.
Fry committed more crimes on 2nd July after he was arrested by police near Penrith at around 10-30am and placed in the back of a van.
“He was initially compliant but then became aggressive, lunging towards both officers, shouting and swearing and threatening to head-butt them both,” said the prosecutor.
He told one PC: “I will bladder you” and verbally abused him.
Fry, of Milner Mount, Penrith, later admitted an actual bodily harm assault and criminal damage arising out of the first incident; and a public order charge plus two emergency worker assaults from the second.
Jeff Smith, defending, said Fry was now “physically and mentally stronger than he has been for a long time”. He appeared to have “turned a corner”, was willing to complete unpaid work in the community and had both accommodation and employment available to him.
Addressing a judge directly over a video link from custody, Fry said he had been “desperate to engage with probation”.
But a probation officer told the court Fry was deemed “unsuitable” for any community punishment. There had been repeated past failures to engage and he had continued to commit offences, the latest occurring while a previous community order was in force. Recorder Mark Ainsworth imposed an immediate five-month prison sentence.
