Ex miner's arson and baseball bat threats

An ex-miner from Mansfield threatened to burn his girlfriend's daughter's house down and hit her on the head with a baseball bat during a boozed-up row, a court heard.
Mansfield Magistrates CourtMansfield Magistrates Court
Mansfield Magistrates Court

Darren Rick made the threats at his Nottingham Road address, on December 8, when the woman arrived to collect her mother after hearing Rick shouting at her over the phone.

“He was described as aggressive but she continued to try and tell her mother to come home with her,” said Robert Carr, prosecuting.

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“She told police she was worried about the threats and that he would carry them out.”

Donna Pursglove, mitigating, said Rick’s life had “gone out of control in a massive way” after he started the “volatile relationship” with a woman he had known for 30 years.

He had been persuaded to drive his ill ex-partner to hospital after a night’s boozing.

He called for an ambulance on Woodhouse Road, Mansfield, at 8am on January 5, but paramedics suspected he was drunk and called the police.

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A breath test revealed he had 92 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, when the legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

The court heard he also stole £42 of aftershave, from Boots, and a £10 pair of jeans, from Primark, in the Four Seasons shopping centre, Mansfield, on January 13.

Ricks had been a miner for 18 years until an accident left him off work for a year and a half, and he became depressed and began drinking heavily, said Ms Pursglove.

She said Ricks was drunk and called the police himself on December 8, because the situation “was clearly getting out of hand.”

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Rick, 51, admitted two counts of theft, threats to destroy property and driving while over the legal limit when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court on Wednesday

Cheryl Nisbet, of the probation service, said: “I think you can tell that alcohol is really at the root of everything. He has never had a dry day in 20 years. He has been hospitalised several times with blackouts and seizures.”

Rick was given 12 weeks in prison, suspended for 15 months, and a 12 month community order, with ten days of rehabilitation and six months of alcohol treatment.

He was banned for 23 months and ordered to pay a £115 victim surcharge and £85 costs.

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