Welshpool woman burgled her own mother's home during family feud

The first time she caused devastation and flooded the property by turning on the taps and blocking the plug holes, Mold Crown Court was told.

A judge said it was part of a cruel campaign against her own mother.

Jocelyn Williams, 32, admitted two burglary offences at the mother’s home in Powys Court, Welshpool, which was said to be part of a family feud.

She was warned she could have gone to prison immediately.

But handing her an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, Judge Niclas Parry warned that if she breached the order then he would jail her.

Williams, who had been living at Woodlands Holiday Park in Ceredigion, was ordered to carry out 250 hours unpaid work and was placed on 20 days rehabilitation.

A five-year restraining order was made under which she must not approach her mother, Sandra Williams, or enter the Powys Court estate.

Targeted

Judge Parry said it been nothing other than a cruel campaign against her own mother.

“You targeted her – you were set upon making her life a misery,” he said.

She entered her home in April while her mother was at work and caused devastation by deliberately flooding the house from top to bottom.

The defendant, he said, deliberately smashed anything she believed would be of sentimental value to her mother.

Two months later she smashed a window and entered the house again.

A neighbour, a decent person, tried to stop her but she slammed the door in his face before causing more damage.

“For your own reasons you are angry and bitter,” he said.

No remorse

Judge Parry said that he could tell by her demeanour in court that she still had no remorse.

The judge said that he feared that she would not comply with the conditions he imposed but he would put her on trust to see if she would.

“If you fail, and I have every reason to believe that you will, then the suspended sentence will be activated,” he said.

Judge Parry told her she was being given a remarkable chance in view of the family dynamics which was at the root of it all.

Prosecuting barrister Richard Edwards said that the mother returned home one day in June to find “an enormous mess” with items smashed and the property flooded.

It happened a second time and a neighbour tried to stop her.

She closed the door in his face and a brass ornament came flying out one of the windows.

The victim had told how she was extremely upset and shocked.

She was devastated and in a panic when she found the damage and feared that she would have a heart attack.

The court heard the defendant, a graduate, was involved in a family dispute and was in need of help and assistance.

But the judge said that he was concerned that the defendant would not co-operate with the probation service and had told in her pre-sentence report how she believed community requirements would be stupid and that there would be no point in them.