A man has been jailed for brandishing a knife in a Workington house containing a baby — and sparking a siege which involved armed police at a different address minutes later.
Connor Cordin, 26, and Lauren Weaver, 28, were both involved in an incident at a home on Casson Road in the town just after 1.10am on October 4.
Weaver tried unsuccessfully to kick through a locked front door.
She and Cordin then entered the property through an insecure back door while the terrified householder was inside and her baby upstairs.
Once inside, Cordin, of no fixed address, momentarily picked up a knife from the kitchen area which he momentarily brandished before placing it down.
He and Weaver, of Windsor Road, Workington, fled the address on hearing that police were coming, but the latter was heard to say: “I’m going to keep coming back. Don’t think it’s over.”
At Carlisle Magistrates’ Court, prosecutor George Shelley said of the householder: “She was fearful for the safety of her and her child.
There was then a separate incident at a different Workington address. Weaver initially emerged from a window and was arrested.
“But a siege-type incident unfolded as Cordin barricaded himself into the building.
He had a knife, was threatening to cause officers harm, and to slit his own throat.
Firearms officers were called and, after protracted negotiations, Cordin was arrested just after 2.30am.
Both he and Weaver were initially charged with aggravated burglary.
They later admitted an alternative offence of affray in relation to the first incident, and Cordin pleaded guilty to a second affray charge arising out of the siege.
Cordin — subject to two previously imposed court orders at the time — was given an immediate 60-week prison sentence.
A district judge concluded there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation for Weaver.
She had a 26-week jail term suspended for two years, must complete rehabilitation work, a 60-day alcohol abstinence monitoring requirement and has been banned from entering Workington for a year.
