A court heard how a man brandished a hammer after his car was damaged with a metal pole during a daytime fracas on a residential Carlisle road.
Jonathan Farrell, 39, and his partner had driven to an address on Weardale Road in a Ford Mondeo at around 10.50am on June 1.
They went to speak with the female occupant of the address, but an argument broke out. Farrell entered into a verbal altercation with the woman’s ex-partner, who brandished a metal pole before using it to strike and damage the Mondeo windscreen.
In response, Farrell went to his car and took hold of a black-handled hammer which he brandished towards the other man.
The woman tried to break up the trouble. An eyewitness dialled 999 and the latter part of the incident was captured on mobile phone camera footage played at Carlisle Magistrates’ Court yesterday. This showed Farrell driving away from the scene with the vehicle’s windscreen shattered.
Farrell pleaded guilty to a public order charge. Giving mitigation, Chris Toms, said the defendant had lost his temper and shouted abuse but only after being the victim of “unexpected” hostility. “He was clearly defending himself, his property and his partner at that point,” said Mr Toms of the hammer being brandished.
Farrell, of Stanhope Road, Carlisle, was fined £120.
- A warrant was issued by a district judge for arrest of the other man involved. He is also charged with an alleged public order act offence, but failed to show for his court hearing.
