Fleetwood man accused of threatening boy with cigarette and knife denies child cruelty and is on trial

Stuart Peter Bailey, 40, of no fixed abode, denies cruelty to a child on October 2 last year.

The youngster cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Prosecuting at Preston Crown Court, Hunter Gray said the case relates to an allegation he threatened a teenage boy.

He added: "We say he threatened him with a lighted cigarette, to burn him, and secondly with a knife and threatened to stab him."

He describes the boy as a " quiet anxious young man" who spends a lot of time on his X-box, which is "his one real outlet and way of making friends and communicating with others."

The court hears the defendant and the boy were at an address last September, and that the defendant had been drinking lager during the course of the day.

At around 5pm the boy asked him a question but was ignored, so he asked again.

Mr Gray said: " This seemed to annoy Mr Bailey and he describes it as an eruption of anger."

"The defendant, with a cigarette which was lit at the time, started jabbing at him, threatening to burn him."

"He, perhaps sensibly, withdrew going back upstairs to a bedroom, but before he did that he took a knife and he went upstairs, fearing the defendant would follow him, and he was right to be fearful."

He told jurors the defendant came upstairs and seized the knife from the boy and jabbed it towards him, while making references to voices in his (own) head.

He added: " You can understand how frightening this might have been."

"The Crown says this was a very frightening experience."

"The defendant left the bedroom but that wasn't the end of the matter because he returned armed with a hammer, which he used to smash up the X-Box in front of him as he watched."

Police were called to the address and arrested Mr Bailey after a short struggle, and took him to Blackpool Police Station.

The jury was played a video of an interview he did with the police.

In it he told an officer: "He started going on at me and he got a lit cigarette and started trying to poke me with it and then he followed me upstairs and he started smashing my X Box up."

The child says Bailey had jabbed the cigarette towards his belly and said: " I'm gonna burn you.

The officer asked: 'How did that make you feel?' but the boy didn't reply.

He tells the officer he had grabbed a knife from the kitchen "just in case", fearing the man was going to hurt him.

He adds: "He came upstairs and started shouting at me and all that and then he started, um, he came near me. "

"He said he was waiting for the voices in his head and then he's going to stab me."

He tells the officer he was "scared" and thought he was "going to hurt him".

He says the defendant had started pushing him up against his bed then came back up with a hammer and started smashing the game console.

The youngster was then called to give evidence by video link.

Defending, Jacob Dyer asked the child: "Are you sure he tried to poke you with a lit cigarette?"

He replied: "Yeah."

Mr Dyer asked: He says he didn't try to poke you - is he lying about that?"

The boy replied: "I'm not sure."

Mr Dyer said: "He says he didn't threaten to stab you with the knife - is he lying about that?"

The child replies: "I'm not sure really, I mean mainly it all happened in the bedroom.

Asked again, he said: "Well I'm not really sure but from what I can recall maybe."

When the boy was asked "did he try to stab you or not", he replied: "No."

(proceeding)