A troubled Carlisle man who made chilling petrol bomb and kill threats on separate dates six weeks apart has been given a 16-week prison sentence.
Alistair Stephen McCluskey, 54, had contacted the single point of access (SPA) crisis team by telephone on the afternoon of January 1 this year. McClusky spoke to a member of staff in a bid to retrieve property following a stay in hospital, although his call was not directed to the correct agency.
When dissatisfied with the response he was given, McCluskey became irate, started swearing and warned: “I’ll come up there and I will petrol bomb and burn the place down.”
Carlisle magistrates’ court heard today the recipient of his threat hadn’t previously met him and didn’t believe he would carry it out. But she had said: “I’m extremely concerned by the comment and reported it to my supervisor.”
Around six weeks later, on February 15, McCluskey was at the reception area of the county council’s Cumbria House base on Carlisle’s Botchergate. He was told a social worker he wanted to speak with about benefits wasn’t in the building.
In response, McCluskey said: “If I see the social worker out on the street, I would kill her.” He sat in the reception area for several minutes before leaving in an angry mood. When later arrested he was found to have a knife with a three-inch blade stashed in his sock.
McCluskey, of Oaklands Drive, Upperby, admitted public order, illegal blade possession and malicious communication offences.
His solicitor, Steven Marsh, described a background of significant mental and physical health problems which were documented in a detailed pre-sentence report. McCluskey had spent much of last year in hospital and had difficulty expressing himself.
“Sometimes I say things I don’t mean,” he had told police when interviewed. He couldn’t remember making the threats, but “wouldn’t have meant them”. The knife hadn’t been produced and would only have been used to self-harm.
District Judge John Temperley imposed a 16-week prison sentence for the offences.
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