Antiques trashed by frustrated Fakenham dad
A FAKENHAM man vented his frustration at not being able to see his newborn child by smashing items in a local antiques shop, Lynn Magistrates' Court was told.
On Tuesday, Joseph Pictor (20), of 10 Barons Close, admitted causing 2,595 damage to windows, furniture and crockery at Countrywide Antiques in Fakenham on December 17.
He was given a 12-month community order, including 60 hours unpaid work, and ordered to pay the full amount in compensation to the antiques business through deductions from his benefits.
Prosecutor Gwen Wallace said a Countrywide Antiques employee discovered the shop had been broken into on December 18. As well as damage to a wooden gate and two windows, a large wall unit, a mirror and lots of crockery had been knocked over and damaged.
The premises had been left locked up, but access had been gained by kicking a hole in a five-feet-tall gate then climbing over it and breaking the windows, she said.
A fingerprint was found on the inside of a window frame and police investigations led to Pictor. When interviewed, he did not remember much about the incident or doing all the damage indicated.
He said the gate was already open and he only broke one window. He mentioned a phone call about access to his child, then picking up a piece of wood and taking his anger out on the shop, Ms Wallace said.
In mitigation, solicitor Alison Muir said the defendant and his girlfriend were made homeless last April and until October slept on other people's sofas while trying to find somewhere to live.
Then the girlfriend went back to live with her parents and in November gave birth to a baby son, while Pictor got hostel accommodation in town.
But her parents refused him any contact with his child and, after getting a phone call about the baby, he vented his frustration on the antiques shop. Miss Muir said it had not been a targeted offence against that premises.
Since then, she said there had been considerable improvement as the girlfriend had found her own accommodation and the defendant could see his son and was keen to find work.
He had stopped taking cannabis and his support worker said there had been significant improvement in his behaviour and he was trying to get his life back on track.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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