[A]N off-duty police sergeant who allegedly attacked a Workington man involved in a domestic dispute with the officer’s parents has gone on trial.
Stephen William Light, 44, is said to have been “buoyed by 10 pints of alcohol” and “took the law into his own hands” during an alleged incident at Andrew Grant’s Fountains Avenue address just after 2am on April 11. At that time, Mr Grant was involved in a dispute with his next door neighbours – Light’s father and step-mother – over alleged noise nuisance.
It is alleged Light – a Northumbria Police sergeant – damaged Mr Grant’s window before entering his home “as a trespasser” soon after. Light then allegedly struck the householder to the back of his head with the base of a metal kitchen roll holder as he tried to retreat to his utility room.
“I have got seven stitches put in my head and the injury was down to my skull,” Mr Grant told jurors as Light’s trial got under way today (TUES) at Carlisle Crown Court.
When being booked into a police station following his arrest, Light was said to have commented: “I’ve lost faith in the police. I’ve lost faith in the council. If you let me out I will kill him.”
“The words,” alleged prosecutor Gerard Rogerson, “of a man intent on sorting out an issue himself, over-stepping the mark – his words in interview – over-stepping the mark and acting entirely outside the law.”
Light, of Bede Close, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, denies unlawful wounding and criminal damage charges. The trial continues.
