A West Cumbria man who made a chilling threat to kill his partner and her baby during an acute mental health crisis has been spared prison by a judge.
Nico Barrowclough, 28, had already spent more than four months in jail on remand after the shocking incident at Flimby on May 16 and was told today the public would be best served if he received a package of supervisory interventional work to provide help and prevent further offending.
Barrowclough took a cocktail of Valium and Xanax tablets before going to the woman’s house. Upstairs, he told her he just “wanted to die” and be with his late father before breaking glass in a bedroom door.
He went downstairs, flipped over a sofa and then used a knife from the kitchen to stab himself and slit his wrists before his partner removed the blade from him.
But after she returned upstairs, Barrowclough took another knife and warned: “Don’t come anywhere near me or I will kill you and that baby.” He warned, in relation to police, that he would “take the lot of them”, but the woman did raise the alarm.
When officers arrived, Barrowclough tried to bite one and kicked another to the stomach. He was “red-dotted” with a stun gun device after starting to “thrash out”.
Barrowclough later admitted charges of affray, criminal damage and assaults on two police officers.
Brendan Burke, defending, said the incident was “clearly an acute mental health crisis”.
Judge Nicholas Barker suspended a 12-month jail term for two years, and ordered Barrowclough, of Gosforth Road, Seascale, to complete a rehabilitation requirement and building better relationships” course. He was also banned from contacting the woman for three years.
It had been, said the judge, “an unpleasant, disturbing, distressing and frightening remark” with reference to the woman and her baby. “She acted with remarkable composure and for that she is to be applauded,” said Judge Barker.
He added of the police assaults: “It is repeatedly said by this court that police officers are valued members of society. They have a job to do. They do not go to work to be assaulted by others. This court will protect them.”
