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Judge says youths brought catapult attack on selves
Stephen Exley
A compensation claim by youths who were left battered and bruised when a homeowner shot them with a catapult has been thrown out of court.
The trio lodged the claim against Bruce Harwood after he took the desperate action as the group had made residents’ lives hell by urinating in doorways, throwing eggs and stones, and screaming and shouting.
The judge spared Harwood a jail term for his attack, saying the youths had provoked residents with their anti-social behaviour and had brought the painful retribution on themselves.
Cambridge Crown Court heard how Harwood and his fellow residents at Chatteris House, Chatteris, were at their wits’ end after being plagued by local youths running in and out of the automatic gates at the Grade II-listed building, throwing eggs and urinating.
When a stone was thrown at the window of his first-floor luxury apartment on April 11, the 38-year-old took matters into his own hands, and got out a catapult.
Charles Snelling, prosecuting, said: “He fired metal ball bearings at them to scare them.”
Three of the youths were left with swellings after being hit on their legs and groin by the metal balls.
Benedict Peers, mitigating, said there had been “a significant element of provocation” towards Harwood, adding: “He will now have to relocate to Northamptonshire to be with his fiancée, as his fiancée refuses to live with him at Chatteris House.”
Sentencing Harwood, Judge Gareth Hawkesworth told the defendant: “In this incident, it is entirely clear to me you and the other residents of Chatteris House were subject to a lot of incidents of anti-social behaviour that were deliberate provocations by local youths.”
But he criticised Harwood for not notifying police and taking the law into his own hands, adding: “It could easily have caused much more serious injury than it did.”
Harwood was previously convicted of assault in 2003, but the judge acknowledged that the defendant had been “under considerable stress at that time”.
He sentenced Harwood to 150 hours of community work.
However, Judge Hawkesworth threw out the claim for compensation by the injured youths, which he described as “entirely inappropriate” as the youngsters had “brought this very much upon themselves.”
Cambridge News | Latest News From In & Around Cambridge City | Latest Sports, Jobs & Business News in Cambridge Newspaper | Judge says youths brought catapult attack on selves
Stephen Exley
The trio lodged the claim against Bruce Harwood after he took the desperate action as the group had made residents’ lives hell by urinating in doorways, throwing eggs and stones, and screaming and shouting.
The judge spared Harwood a jail term for his attack, saying the youths had provoked residents with their anti-social behaviour and had brought the painful retribution on themselves.
Cambridge Crown Court heard how Harwood and his fellow residents at Chatteris House, Chatteris, were at their wits’ end after being plagued by local youths running in and out of the automatic gates at the Grade II-listed building, throwing eggs and urinating.
When a stone was thrown at the window of his first-floor luxury apartment on April 11, the 38-year-old took matters into his own hands, and got out a catapult.
Charles Snelling, prosecuting, said: “He fired metal ball bearings at them to scare them.”
Three of the youths were left with swellings after being hit on their legs and groin by the metal balls.
Benedict Peers, mitigating, said there had been “a significant element of provocation” towards Harwood, adding: “He will now have to relocate to Northamptonshire to be with his fiancée, as his fiancée refuses to live with him at Chatteris House.”
Sentencing Harwood, Judge Gareth Hawkesworth told the defendant: “In this incident, it is entirely clear to me you and the other residents of Chatteris House were subject to a lot of incidents of anti-social behaviour that were deliberate provocations by local youths.”
But he criticised Harwood for not notifying police and taking the law into his own hands, adding: “It could easily have caused much more serious injury than it did.”
Harwood was previously convicted of assault in 2003, but the judge acknowledged that the defendant had been “under considerable stress at that time”.
He sentenced Harwood to 150 hours of community work.
However, Judge Hawkesworth threw out the claim for compensation by the injured youths, which he described as “entirely inappropriate” as the youngsters had “brought this very much upon themselves.”
Cambridge News | Latest News From In & Around Cambridge City | Latest Sports, Jobs & Business News in Cambridge Newspaper | Judge says youths brought catapult attack on selves
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