Drunk Sutton man tried to batter his way into neighbour's flat to rescue her from knife-wielding ‘cuckoo’ gang
A drunk Sutton man tried to batter his way into his neighbour's flat in a bid to rescue her from knife-wielding criminals, a court heard.
Lee Walker was intoxicated when he entered the woman's flat and was asked to leave on May 29, said Lucy Woodcock, prosecuting.
She heard him kick the door once, and then hammer something against the door, damaging the peephold and causing it to go "flying through the air."
And he made a throat-slitting gesture through the window.
The court heard he has three previous convictions for criminal damage but they are of “some significant age.”
Walker's solicitor said he denied threatening his neighbour and explained the pair had a longstanding friendship prior to this incident.
On the day in question he had a visitor who was having a seizure, but when he asked his neighbour for help he was threatened by someone with a blade inside her flat.
He returned with an item and banged on the door but accepts “he went about things the wrong way,” said his solicitor
She said Walker’s neighbour was being cuckooed – a criminal practice where gangs or individuals take over a vulnerable person's home to use it as a base for illegal activities.
Those people have been removed from her address and were the driving force behind a “large number of allegations” against him.
“His neighbour is grateful to him because these individuals have been removed,” she added.
Walker, aged 52, of High Street, Stanton Hill, admitted criminal damage, when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court on Tuesday, September 1. He was ordered to pay £200 compensation for the damaged door to Ashfield District Council.