A MAN who made drunken and unfounded claims his Kendal neighbour had “killed” her own dad just days after he died from COVID-19 was branded “callous, unsympathetic and brutish” by a judge.
Trouble flared as residents of Peat Bank congregated on doorsteps to show support for NHS workers on the evening of Sunday, 5th April. They included grieving care home worker Lynne Westworth, whose father had passed away the previous Thursday due to coronavirus.
Believing that Miss Westworth was posing a potential risk by “socialising with others”, 57-year-old next door neighbour Andrew Stuart approached her in the street after arming himself with a blade which he held by his side, having earlier rowed with his wife.
“The defendant was brandishing the knife,” prosecutor Charles Brown told Carlisle Crown Court today (TUES). “He was shouting at Miss Westworth that she had killed her father. Her father had recently died the previous week of the COVID-19 virus. He was blaming her father having contracted it on Miss Westworth.”
No physical violence ensued during a shocking incident which erupted with children nearby and was captured by other neighbours on mobile phones.
“I am struggling to cope with everything,” Miss Westworth later said in an impact statement. “It was bad enough having to cope with the death of my father and grieve for him. Now I have this to deal with as well.
“It has affected the whole neighbourhood. People are in shock. He (Stuart) was completely out of order. None of us will feel safe if he is allowed to move back and live on the street.”
Stuart admitted affray and illegal knife possession. He was described as being “ashamed of himself and disgusted with his actions” by his barrister, David Traynor, who revealed the defendant was in an “at risk” group due to his complex medical history, and “extremely anxious” amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
After reading background medical reports, considering government sentencing guidelines and hearing Stuart had already spent a month remanded in custody, Judge Nicholas Barker suspended a five-month sentence for 18 months, describing the criminal conduct as “atrocious”. He ordered Stuart, of Peat Bank, to complete a rehabilitation requirement, 150 hours’ unpaid work and banned him from contacting or communicating with his neighbour for two years.
“Your words are callous, unsympathetic and brutish. You were in some way seeking to blame Miss Westworth’s father’s death upon her – a quite awful and terrible remark,” said Judge Barker. “You shouted at her. She shouted back, of course. Why wouldn’t she? Why would she not react? Why would others not react? It is in my judgement fortunate that this incident did not result in more disorder because your behaviour was quite so outrageous.”
He added: “I do not sentence you, Andrew Stuart, for breaching the COVID-19 restrictions that the government had announced a week before this. But it is, in my judgement, an aggravating feature that you had such blatant disregard for them in the context of this case.”
