Published date: 12 August 2016 |
Published by: Staff reporterRead more articles by Staff reporterEmail reporter
A MAN was so drunk he could not remember an incident where he threatened to kill an innocent woman outside a Rhyl amusement arcade and holding a bottle to her stomach.
Defendant Duane Melvin Peters, 44, who was living in a homeless shelter at the time, admitted making a threat to kill, assault and possessing an offensive weapon and was jailed for 12 months at Mold Crown Court.
The court heard how the woman was a visitor to North Wales and was outside the arcade at Rhyl having a cigarette while her family were inside.
Prosecuting barrister Elen Owen said that on the afternoon of July 20 when she was approached by Peters who was clearly drunk.
He started to speak to her from a distance, dropped a bottle, picked up the glass and walked passed her towards a bin.
Peters started to speak to her, asking her views about various things, but then said if she spoke to him like that again then he would kill her.
“She felt something touching her stomach, she looked down and saw that a piece of broken bottle was being held towards her stomach,” Miss Owen explained.
Her uncle who witnessed what was happening came out of the arcade and asked if everything was alright?
He saw the defendant tapping her face with his finger then pressing the bottle towards her stomach before the defendant walked away.
Peters was arrested nearby but his reply to caution could not be understood because he was so drunk.
He was agitated and aggressive and when breathtested three hours later provided a reading of 75 microgrammes, just more than double the limit for drivers.
Interviewed the following day, he said he was drunk and recalled walking with a bottle of red wine but then remembered nothing until his arrest.
At the time he was living in the Dewi Sant Centre for the homeless and said that he drank for medicinal purposes because he had a tooth abscess.
That day he had been drinking from 7 a.m. onwards.
Defending barrister Simon Rogers said that the defendant appreciated that custody was inevitable and that his best mitigation was his guilty pleas at Caernarfon magistrates’ court.
While it was an unpleasant incident, fortunately no injury had been caused. It was accepted that it would have been distressing for the victim.
His client had indicated that he could not remember the incident, was remorseful and extremely upset by what had been described, and indicated that it would have been completely out of character for him.
“”It does not sound like something he would do,” said Mr Rogers.
But Judge David Hale said: “But he did.”
The judge said the defendant had “many pages of previous convictions”.
He added: “IT is a very serious offence, whether in drink or otherwise, to go up to a woman who is nothing to do with you, a complete stranger, and threaten to kill her.”
Peters had a bottle “in very close proximity to her stomach” and pointed at her face.
“She was very frightened by it, quite rightly,” Judge Hale said.
Peters received an additional two months for being in breach of earlier court orders making a 14 month sentence in all.
see-http://www.rhyljournal.co.uk/news/165494/drunk-man-could-not-remember-threat-to-kill-innocent-woman-outside-rhyl-arcade.aspx
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