A Kendal man jailed for subjecting his former partner and her father to ‘appalling conduct’ asked the judge: “Do I get any time off for coronavirus?”

Jamie Thornborrow, 31, asked the question as Judge Nicholas Barker finished sentencing him at Carlisle Crown Court, imposing a 27-month jail term for a series of upsetting offences, which involved him arriving at his then partner’s father’s home armed with an axe and threatening to burn the house down.

He also threatened to send people to have his partner’s father killed.

The defendant, of Sparrowmire Lane, Kendal, admitted four offences: two allegations of putting a person in fear of violence; carrying a bladed article in a public place without lawful authority; and a common assault on his then partner.

Jack Troupe, prosecuting, said Thornborrow had argued with his partner on November 2 last year, prompting her to go to her father’s home in Hallgarth, Kendal in the early hours.

Within 10 minutes of her arriving there, the defendant was outside in his car.

He repeatedly beeped his horn, demanding that his partner come outside to see him. Thornborrow then approached the house, armed with a short-handled axe, saying his partner’s father ‘was dead’.

The defendant kept demanding that the door be opened, and said he wanted his partner to return a ring he had bought for her birthday. Because of his insistence, she threw the ring to him from inside the house.

Thornborrow then threatened to smash up her father’s car in an attempt to lure him outside, said Mr Troupe.

It was at this point that he threatened to send people to have him killed.

On November 10, while the defendant was staying at his grandmother’s home, he grabbed his partner around the neck and began pressing downwards, said Mr Troupe. The grandmother witnessed this and told Thornborrow to get out of the house.

On November 14, the defendant sent his partner a series of text messages.

They became ‘increasingly’ threatening, the court heard. One said: “You are dead” and another: “I love you.” After this, in the early hours of the morning, the woman’s father and family were woken by banging on the windows, with the defendant screaming: “I’m going to burn the house down with everyone in it. Get outside.” Thornborrow repeatedly returned to the property, and in one visit said he would pour petrol through the letterbox.

In a victim personal statement, his estranged partner’s father said what happened prompted him to fit improved security to the home and he struggled to sleep because of his fear of what the defendant might do.

Jacob Dyer, defending, accepted Thornborrow was responsible for a ‘disgraceful episode’ of behaviour. “He does recognise his behaviour was totally unacceptable and he does express remorse,” said Mr Dyer. “His record is poor, but it’s by and large low-level offending. He’s spent three months in custody now. That’s clearly had some impact on him.

“It’s apparent this all occurred at the time of a breakdown in a relationship... this appears to have been two weeks of madness.”

Jailing him, Judge Nicholas Barker told the defendant: “You now fall to be sentenced for a series of offences which arose out of your appalling conduct towards your partner and her father... what is apparent is that you have an inability to manage your behaviour when you are challenged by the breakdown of a relationship.”

The judge noted the defendant had previously completed a ‘Building Better Relationships’ course after an almost identical offence in 2016.

Explaining the jail term, the judge added that he did not believe there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation, given the defendant’s failure to moderate his behaviour, and the extreme nature and duration of the offences committed. When the defendant asked about whether his jail term would be cut because of the coronavirus and having to spend 23 hours a day in his cell, the judge replied: “That’s already baked into this sentence.”