Blackpool: From the courts 10-07-18

Jodie Stubbs, 32, breach of bail conditions

A woman was arrested after being found hiding in a cupboard under the stairs by police at her boyfriend’s address.

Jodie Stubbs had broken the law because she had been bailed on the condition she did not contact her boyfriend or go to the home they once shared on Handley Road, North Shore.

The mother-of-three said she had taken round cleaning and decorating materials which social services had said were needed to make the address habitable.

Stubbs had believed her partner was at work but she fled to the cupboard when she heard him return and then phoned the police to tell them where she was.

Stubbs, 32, of Irvine Close, North Shore, pleaded guilty to breaching bail.

District Judge, Jeff Brailsford told her: “I think you are the luckiest lady in Blackpool because I’m going to rebail you.”

Prosecutor, Andrew Robinson, said Stubbs had been bailed after she pleaded not guilty to an allegation of assaulting her partner causing him actual bodily harm, by hitting him with a bottle causing cuts to the side of his head.

The bail conditions banned her from contacting her partner or going to the address he lived at in Handley Road.

On July 7, at 3.40pm police received a call from a woman and officers went to the Handley Road address.

It was her third breach of bail.

Brett Chappell, defending, told the judge Stubbs said social services had told her the address at Handley Road she had shared with her partner and three children was not fit for habitation.

Believing her partner was at work Stubbs took round cleaning and decorating materials to the address to make it habitable.

Richard Cohen, 31, assault

A man strangled his girlfriend after pushing her onto the stairs during an argument.

Richard Cohen told police he did it to stop her screaming and shouting at him.

Cohen, a 31-year-old roofer, of Hawthorn Drive, Thornton, pleaded guilty to assault.

He was sentenced to an 18 month community order with up to 25 days rehabilitation to be supervised by the probation service, fined £50 with £85 costs and ordered to pay £75 compensation.

Prosecutor, Sarah Perkins, said Cohen’s partner called police on June 1 and said she no longer wanted him at her address.

She then told an officer that two weeks previously, on June 3, during a row Cohen had strangled her causing her pain in her neck and difficulty swallowing.

When interviewed Cohen said they had both been drinking and a row started. He put himself as a five or six on a scale of drunkenness up to 10 and said he had been trying to stop her screaming at him.

Stephen Duffy, defending, said his client’s partner of 12 years had not made a formal complaint to police about the assault.

Mr Duffy said Cohen had been frank with police and but for his honesty it would be unlikely he would be before a court.

Cohen admitted on the day of the offence he had a total loss of control.

He believed the relationship might now be over.

Matthew Jones, 31, assault

A 31-year-old man spat in the face of a special constable who was trying to arrest him.

Matthew Jones, of Withnell Road, South Shore, was found guilty in his absence of assaulting the officer at a property on Central Drive.

Magistrates issued a warrant for his arrest.

Kenny Dickson, 25, breach of court order

A convicted sex offender went to ground and lived in a tent.

Kenny Dickson, who is on the Sex Offender’s Register (SOR) for life, failed to tell police when his brother kicked him out of his home for using drugs.

Dickson, 25, formerly of Carshalton Road, North Shore, pleaded guilty to breaching the SOR order by failing to notify police of his address between June 25 and July 7 this year.

He was sentenced to four months jail, suspended for a year with up to 20 days rehabilitation to be supervised by the probation service, put on six months drug rehabilitation and ordered to pay £85 costs with £115 victims’ surcharge.

The court was told Dickson was put on the SOR for life in 2011 for sexually assaulting a female, kidnap and possession of a blade in public.

Prosecutor, Andrew Robinson, said after being released from a prison sentence on June 19 Dickson registered Carshalton Road as his address.

When a detective went there to check, Dickson’s brother said he had thrown him out and the defendant had not lived there for a week.