Sledgehammer man banned from seeing own mother

Christian Wright, 21, appeared from custody at a weekend sitting of North East Wales Magistrates' Court at Mold on Saturday but was bailed pending sentence.

He admitted that he damaged a back door and a fence belonging to Amanda Wright at John Street in Chirk, on Thursday, April 25, and obstructing police.

That put him in breach of a conditional discharge for a public order offence and two counts of criminal damage which also involved his family.

Now Wright, who lives at his girlfriend's home at Green Lane in Shotton, has been banned from entering Chirk or seeing his own mother.

District Judge Gwyn Jones said he should not contact her in any way including by social media.

He placed him on a 12-month community order with rehabilitation which he said was aimed at changing his attitude towards offending and his approach to members of his own family.

Wright must carry out 200 hours unpaid work and he was ordered to pay his mother £230 compensation.

"It is clear that you have issues regarding your own family," the judge said.

Prosecutor Rhian Jackson said that the 47-year-old victim was at home when she heard knocking at the window and immediately knew it was the defendant.

She went upstairs and looked out and saw him in the garden.

Mrs Wright shut the window, went downstairs and phoned a friend.

Struggled

The friend, when she arrived, told her to call the police because he had bail conditions not to be at her address.

A neighbour filmed Wright pick up a three-foot-long sledgehammer and use it on the back door of the property and on the fence.

Police attended, saw the footage and he was found in an alleyway.

When told he was under arrest he tried to escape, he struggled and he was sprayed with incapacitant.

He was on a conditional discharge for an earlier incident when damage had been caused at his grandmother's property.

A probation officer said that the defendant now described his decision to go to the property as stupid but at the time felt he was being encouraged to go there.

The damage was caused when he was wound up and frustrated and he struggled with police because he felt he was being wrongly arrested.

She felt he was attempting to minimise his actions and did not seem to understand the seriousness of his offending.

He lived with his partner and her three children in Shotton and had obtained a job in construction.

The defendant put down his recent offending to boredom.

Defending solicitor Laura Preston-Hayes said that her client was not particularly mature.

He had drawn a line under it now and did not oppose the restraining order.

If things changed in the future then an application could be made for the order to be removed.