Published date: 09 November 2016 |
Published by: Staff reporterRead more articles by Staff reporterEmail reporter
A chainsaw was wielded to threaten another man in a town centre, a court was told.
The chainsaw had been started up and the attacker was threatening to chop a man's head off with it.
A crown court judge said the incident in Llangollen would have been absolutely horrific for those who witnessed it.
Judge Rhys Rowlands said it would not be tolerated.
Mold Crown Court heard that the man who was being threatened by the chainsaw was curled up outside a shop.
He was never traced but the police were alerted by a man living nearby.
The man who wielded the chainsaw was Andrew Jones who appeared via a live television link from Stoke Heath custody centre and admitted a charge of threatening a man with a chainsaw in Market Street.
Jones, 27, of Wern, Chirk, was jailed for nine months – to be served consecutively to a four and a half year prison sentence imposed at Carlisle Crown Court for a cocaine offence.
He was warned that but for the other sentence he could have expected two years for wielding the chainsaw in dangerous circumstances when he was drunk and using it to threaten another man.
Co-defendant Michael Taylor, 27, of Sixth Avenue, Llay, near Wrexham, admitted possessing the chain saw in Market Street after he was seen to get it out of the boot of a BMW car and try to start it about three times. He was jailed for six months.
The judge said that it must have been “an absolutely horrific incident” for those who witnessed it.
The notion of drunken men aggressively taking hold of a chainsaw, and starting it up, one of them threatening someone with it, was quite appalling.
“It is simply not going to be tolerated,” he said.
A witness had seen Jones brandishing the chainsaw with its motor running only some five feet away from another man who was cowering outside a shop.
“You were shouting that you were going to chop his head off,” he told Jones.
David Mainstone, prosecuting, said that a man in his 60s heard shouting in the Market Street car park at about 9-40pm on Saturday, May 28.
He looked out and saw three men. One of them, said to be Jones, was wearing dark shorts and bare chested, and was being aggressive.
The witness was concerned about his vehicle, went to check on it, but as he returned to his flat he heard the sound of a chainsaw starting up.
Fearing for his own safety he went inside and locked the door, alerted police and when he looked out saw Jones swing the chainsaw at another man.
The victim was in a rolled up position outside a shop and the defendant was threatening to chop his head off.
The men left in a grey BMW and the witness was able to get the registration number for the police.
An investigation showed the car had been driven around various roads in Llangollen that night and it was found abandoned in Chirk by a recovery company.
The chainsaw was in the boot at that stage but it had disappeared by the time police recovered it.
CCTV footage showed Jones going to the car at Llangollen before the incident but others intervened and he put the chainsaw back.
But later Jones and Taylor returned to the vehicle and both men were seen trying to start it.
Ceri Jones, for Jones, said it was out of character.
The chainsaw was in the vehicle legitimately because he had been cutting trees at his grandfather’s home.
It had not been planned to take it out of the vehicle that evening.
There had been some trouble that night, nothing of a criminal nature, and in the heat of the moment he took possession of the chainsaw.
Thankfully with the assistance of friends he came to realise what he was doing and put it back in the boot.
Henry Hills, for Taylor, said that his client took possession of the chainsaw for a brief moment only.
He had tried to start it unsuccessfully in what Mr Hills described as “a moment of madness
http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/168895/man-used-chainsaw-in-llangollen-town-centre-and-threatened-to-cut-somebody-s-head-off.aspx
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