Man came armed with meat cleaver
A MAN feared he was going to die when he was attacked with a meat cleaver, the Royal Court was told.
Ryan Williams, 27, who had previously given his address as L’Heritage, Les Hubits, St Martin’s, admitted assaulting the man, possessing an offensive weapon, and causing criminal damage to a door.
The incident took place at a property in the Forest in July this year.
Crown Advocate Chris Dunford told the court how the defendant’s partner, who was five months’ pregnant with his child at the time, was visiting the victim at his mother’s home, something she would do once or twice a month.
The men had only met after the woman started seeing the defendant.
The defendant began messaging his partner and accused her of cheating on him. There were some 20 calls or texts in total. These turned to threats and he told her he had trashed her flat and that he would cut off her mother’s hands.
She contacted another family member, who spoke to the defendant, who then called her to apologise and said he loved her.
When the woman told the victim that she had revealed to the defendant that she had been unfaithful to him before she knew she was pregnant the victim feared that he could be wrongly blamed. The defendant then called the woman to say he was in the area and that he had a meat cleaver with him.
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When the doorbell rang at about 9.50pm the victim told his mother not to answer it. When the victim opened the door he saw the defendant there holding a bottle of whisky or vodka by the neck. He was unsteady on his feet and clearly under the influence of alcohol. He demanded to see the woman and when he was told he could not the defendant produced the meat cleaver which had been holding behind his back in his other hand. When he raised it to a vertical position, the victim, fearing he was going to be struck on the head with it, grabbed it, sustaining cuts to his fingers. The victim managed to wrestle it from the defendant who he struck on the head with it in self defence before throwing it against a wall.
The defendant punched the victim in his face and the kidneys area and tried to strangle him. When the victim shouted at the defendant and told him to leave, the defendant spat blood at him. A car then arrived and the defendant’s sister and a friend got out. The sister told the victim and his mother to go back into the house as she pushed her brother against a wall. The defendant broke free and kicked in the lower panel of the front door of the house. The mother shouted at the defendant to leave and when another car arrived he got in it and went. Police tried to contact him on his mobile phone. They were led to believe that he might be at his father’s home in St Martin’s but he was not. Acting on information they went to Fountain Street where they found him walking on steps. He used a foreign accent and gave his name as James but later said he was Ryan Williams. When he removed his hood he had a cut to his head.
Williams gave no comment responses to questions in interview and he refused to give police the pin number from his mobile phone.
Advocate Samuel Steel said his client denied making threats on the phone. He had not spat blood at the other man deliberately and tests taken after for contagious diseases had proved negative. A GP had suggested that the victim was suffering from PTSD as a result of the incident but this was a suspicion and not a formal diagnosis.
Counsel said his client had not gone out deliberately with the meat cleaver but had lent it to a friend for a hog roast and was intending to take it home. The friend had now left the island and could not corroborate that story. The meat cleaver was also blunt.
Judge Russell Finch said the court was not surprised to hear that the victim had been receiving stress counselling. This had been a violent and determined attempt at home invasion with a potentially deadly weapon.
‘From your mitigation, you are still seeking to minimise your actions,’ he said.
The defendant had no previous convictions in an adult court. He was sentenced to four years in prison for the assault and two years, concurrent, on both the offensive weapon and criminal damage charges. He must pay £483.36 compensation for damage to the door, and forfeiture and destruction of the meat cleaver was ordered.
