Court hears farmworker made threat to petrol bomb Kendal house (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Court hears farmworker made threat to petrol bomb Kendal house

5:33pm Monday 9th July 2012 in News

A FARMWORKER who made a “spine-chilling” threat to petrol bomb a house during a feud between two Kendal families has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Carlisle Crown Court heard that Jamie Thornborrow, 22, made the threat to a police officer called to trouble in Sparrowmire Lane on the morning of February 25.

During the disturbance Stefan Banks used a hammer to cause “significant damage to various windows” at the home of some of Thornborrow’s relatives, prosecutor Becky McGregor told the court.

Banks has already been ordered by local magistrates to do £150 hours unpaid community work and pay £1,000 compensation for his part in the incident, the court heard.

And, Ms McGregor said, Thornborrow’s uncle, 42-year-old Kevin Hartshorn, who lives on a farm at Skelsmergh, was dealt with at Barrow Crown Court last week on a charge of unlawfully wounding Clive Banks.

On Monday this week Thornborrow pleaded guilty to threatening to destroy or damage Stefan Banks’s house on the Hallgarth Estate by fire-bombing it.

He pleaded not guilty to carrying a three-and-a-half inch lock-knife in Sparrowmire Lane and that charge was left lying on the court file and will not be proceeded with.

Ms McGregor told the court “tensions were running high in the area” because of a feud between the two families.

When the police arrived Thornborrow – who lives with his grandmother in Sparrowmire Lane – threatened to break Stefan Banks’s legs.

He then told one officer: “I will petrol bomb the house. I don’t care if you arrest me.”

Thornborrow was arrested after a struggle.

When interviewed he told the police he had not intended to carry out his threat, although he would have done something “if anything had happened to his grandmother’s house.”

In mitigation, defence advocate Gareth James said the families had been engaged in a feud over a dog.

He said Thornborrow was “clearly upset by what had been going on”, particularly the arrest of his uncle.

“He realises now that what he did was not going to help to calm the situation down,” Mr James said.

He said that though Thornborrow had 19 previous convictions he had not been in trouble for five years – partly thanks to the “stabilising influence” of his girlfriend, who was now expecting his baby.

Thornborrow was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 150 hours unpaid community work.

He was also made to pay £300 court costs.

Judge Paul Batty QC described his threat as “spine-chilling”.

He told Thornborrow: “This feuding has got to stop.”