Noise dispute triggered violence in shared Mansfield house

Tenants at the house of multiple occupation on Newgate Lane were shift workers, prosecutor Noel Philo said, but ‘they tried to work out a civilised way of co-existing’.

"Unfortunately by April 6 things had gone a little awry," he said, as Romero-andrie Pop was off work and drank a whole bottle of Jack Daniels.

His girlfriend and his neighbour's girlfriend exchanged ‘fairly aggressive’ messages on social media, each complaining about the noise made by the other.

Pop drunkenly barged into his neighbour's room while the man was in bed and hit him over the head with a glass, leaving a small cut.

As they struggled, he pulled up the man's T-shirt and struck him on the chest – leaving scratches and bruises.

He fetched a knife from downstairs and threatened to slit his neighbour's throat.

Pop began stabbing his neighbour's door as his victim held it shut and the blade went right through – close to the man's head.

He left the knife embedded in the door and was arrested shortly afterwards.

His victim had to take time off work and spoke of his ‘continuing fear’ in a statement.

Simon Hanns, mitigating, said the offences were ‘entirely out of character’ for the Romanian national, who was of previous good character and remorseful.

"He explained there had been tensions at the property but he overreacted," he said. "That is arguably an understatement of what happened that day."

Pop was bailed on April 15 and has served the equivalent of 40 days on remand with an electronically monitored curfew.

He has the prospect of another warehouse job and plans to move to the Worksop area where his partner lives, Mr Hanns said, adding there was a realistic prospect of Pop's rehabilitation.

Pop, 34, now of Newcastle Avenue, Worksop, pleaded guilty to affray and criminal damage, on April 8, and was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm after a trial, on May 28.

On Friday, Judge Rosalind Coe QC sentenced him to one year and eight months, but suspended it for two years.

She ordered him to attend 10 rehabilitation days, and pay £510 costs and £300 compensation to his victim.

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