Breaking down ex's apartment door results in prison time

Saturday 17 February 2018

A man has been given four months in prison after breaking down his ex-girlfriends flat door in an attempt to repay her for a broken mirror.

Nicholas Godfrey also head butted a police officer when they arrived on the scene to arrest him.

Godfrey, 44, was rowing with his ex-girlfriend who lived in the flat beneath his, over whether he had broken a mirror which belonged to her. He then returned to his flat, and decided he would pay the woman to end the argument, so collected the money and returned to her flat.

Upon arriving back at her door, he found it to be locked, so he decided to kick the door down - it gave in, and the police were called.

When the police arrived, Godfrey was restrained, but because of a permanent injury to his right shoulder, he lashed out at one of the police officers and head butted him.

Judge Graeme McKerrell said he struggled to understand why Godfrey thought breaking down the apartment door would help the situation with his ex-girlfriend: 

"You say you didn't expect the door to go through, but it was always a risk that it would," he said.

"I accept that the assault on the officer was as a result of your previous injury, but none the less it was completely foolish - assaults on the police are always likely to be met with a custodial sentence."

Godfrey had 54 previous entries on his criminal record, which all occurred between 1987 and 2011, the most recent of which was an assault.

The defence advocate also stressed that when Godfrey had moved into the residence where the incident occurred, he and the woman were not partners. They then had a relationship, before separating. 

In total, a sentence of three months was given for the assault on the police officer, and one month for the criminal damage to the door, at a total of four months consecutively in prison. That started on the 24 November, when Godfrey was first taken into custody.

Compensation payments were also ordered at £98 for the door and £150 to the PC who was assaulted.