A man has been jailed by a judge after he admitted falsely imprisoning and strangling a woman at an address in Keswick.
Jordan James Black, 25, was due to have gone on trial in front of a jury at Carlisle Crown Court. Black had previously denied a string of charges.
One alleged that he unlawfully and injuriously imprisoned the woman, detaining her against her will, while another alleged non-fatal strangulation.
Black also stood accused of falsely imprisoning a second woman.
All charges were brought following incidents which occurred at the Keswick address on February 21 this year.
But Black changed his pleas on all three counts to guilty after receiving an advance indication from a judge, Recorder Tony Hawks, about the level of sentence he could expect if he admitted the offences. This indication had been sought by his barrister, Olivia Beesley.
The court heard that by committing the crimes, Black was in breach of a suspended prison sentence. This had been imposed, along with community work aimed at rehabilitating him, at the crown court in February last year for threatening another person with an offensive weapon.
This had occurred at around 7.30pm on December 22 2020. Black repeatedly swung a claw hammer towards another man in Cockermouth’s Market Place having delivered crude verbal abuse and indicated a wish to fight.
“He managed to dodge every blow and then the defendant simply walked off,” prosecutor Brendan Burke had said, respectively, of the intended target and Black.
After hearing mitigation, Recorder Hawks imposed an immediate eight-month prison sentence for the 2023 offending.
The judge also activated nine months of the 18 which had been suspended in the wake of last year’s hammer crime. This must be served consecutively, meaning a total of 17 months, with Black having failed to take the chance to mend his ways.
The judge had previously observed that Black had a shocking list of previous convictions which included past violence and dishonesty.
Black, of Napier Street, Workington, was also banned from contacting the two victims he had falsely imprisoned, and a third individual, in any way for the next five years.
