Jack Simpson given community order in King’s Lynn court after assaulting friend and parents and damaging their cars

“You’re lucky you’re not a Jew ‘cos I would gas you.”

Those were the words of a 23-year-old who assaulted a friend and his parents as well as damaging two of their cars.

Jack Simpson, of no fixed address but believed to be from the Swaffham area, appeared at Lynn’s Magistrates’ Court on Thursday to be sentenced.

He had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of assault by beating, three of criminal damage to property valued under £5,000, and using racially or religiously aggravated words to cause intentional harassment.

Crown prosecutor Nicola Lamb said that the first of the offences occurred on November 17 in Thetford, where Simpson assaulted a woman in her own home while her children were upstairs.

In a victim impact statement read out in court, the victim said she was left “traumatised” having previously thought of Simpson as a “good friend”.

The victim added that she is “distraught” at the thought that her children were in the house while the assault happened.

Later, on January 26, Simpson went to his parents’ house in Swaffham and was acting “aggressive and abusive”.

He pushed his father and punched him in the face, and then pushed his mother out of the way.

Three neighbours came out to assist, and the police were called.

Simpson also shouted to his father: “You’re lucky you’re not a Jew ‘cos I would gas you”, and smashed the wing mirror of his car. He then smashed his mother’s car windscreen with a fence post.

In mitigation, solicitor Melanie Williams advised magistrates to agree with sentencing guidelines provided in a pre-sentence report provided by the probation service.

“It’s clear in the report that he is very remorseful for his actions. He recognises the negative impact of his actions. He just wants to put things right,” she said.

“His mental health concerns, mixed with alcohol and drugs, led to this offending.”

Ms Williams argued that Simpson “needs rehabilitation” instead of a custodial sentence.

Magistrates took Ms Williams advice and handed Simpson an 18-month community order, involving 40 rehabilitation activity days to complete.

He was also ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work – 20 hours were added to this for committing a racially aggravated offence.

He will also pay a victim surcharge of £114 and court costs of £105.