Vile yob threatened parents of dying kid in the street with a crowbar
A vile thug in Hull threatened the parents of a dying kid with a crowbar, telling the mum he would bash her head in
A GROUP of thugs made threats to the parents of a terminally ill child with one threatening to bash the mum’s head in with a crowbar, a court has heard.
Christopher Hodgins, 35, was among a group of three armed men who began causing trouble outside the east Hull home just before noon on January 21, according to the .
Hull Crown Court heard there was a history of “hostility” between Hodgins and the man who lived there with his partner and four children.
Phillip Evans, prosecuting, said the man was watching TV while also keeping his eye on a CCTV monitor which "he has found it necessary to install at his home."
He also had a panic alarm fitted.
Mr Evans said the first thing the victim saw was the defendant's brother, Craig Hodgins, with a baseball bat outside his house.
The defendant then appeared carrying a lime green crowbar with a man called Mike Young.
Mr Evans added: "Threats and abuse were shouted at [the victim] with the aim of getting him to leave his property to engage in conflict in the street.
"[The victim] formed the view that was what the men were trying to do, and [his partner] it was who went to the door to tell the men to go away.
"She was met with a volley of threats and abuse and the defendant waving a crowbar, shouting: 'You'll get this through your f****** head'."
Hodgins, of Longford Grove, east Hull, then began hitting a fence close to the house with the crowbar, causing damage.
Mr Evans said the victim pulled his partner inside the house, "his main concern being that she and the children were safe.
“Other people arrived, making the group outside the house even bigger.
"But the defendant, far from distancing himself from this, removed his top and threatened to fight [the victim] in a nearby field".
The householder pressed the panic button and police arrived, although Hodgins had already fled.
Mr Evans said that in a victim statement, the man claimed he was "totally disgusted" by the incident, particularly as it happened "in front of his children, one of whom, he says, is terminally ill".
The prosecutor said two other defendants in the case had pleaded guilty to threatening behaviour and had been sentenced to community orders with unpaid work by magistrates.
Hodgins admitted criminal damage, carrying an offensive weapon, and threatening behaviour.
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His previous convictions included assaulting police and a racially aggravated public order offence in Scotland.
Sentencing Hodgins to an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, Judge Paul Watson QC told him: "You are 35 years old, you really ought to know better by now.
"You've got a long record for getting involved in incidents like this and you are going to leave somebody in my position pretty soon with no option but to give you a custodial sentence."
Hodgins was also ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work.
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