Thomas Noble left his 74-year-old grandmother and his then partner so terrified about what he would do next they barricaded themselves into a room, York Crown Court heard.
The girlfriend was injured as she “bravely” tried to disarm Noble, who was wielding a knife and was throwing things around.
It took three police officers to bring Noble under control. Two officers were injured and the other assaulted in what Recorder Thomas Moran called a “disgusting” incident.
Noble, 24, of Fifth Avenue, Tang Hall, pleaded guilty to three charges of assaulting police emergency workers, one of assaulting his grandmother and one of causing actual bodily harm to his girlfriend.
The judge said of the women: “They were both terrified, not knowing how much more serious this incident would become. You were trying to smash your way into the conservatory where they had taken refuge.”
Noble told a probation officer his behaviour was due to the drugs he had taken. He had been hallucinating and thought he was protecting his family from other people.
The grandmother told police Noble needed help and she was only making a statement against him as she believed it would get him help.
Noble was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months on condition he does a 40-day rehabilitative programme, 20 days’ rehabilitative activities and 80 hours’ unpaid work.
He was also given a five-year restraining order aimed at protecting the grandmother.
Rob Galley, prosecuting, told the court the grandmother woke at 6.30am on April 27 to hear Noble pacing around her bungalow. He had moved in with her six weeks earlier after losing his job and accommodation.
Noble pushed both the grandmother and his girlfriend, who had also moved in, to the floor. The 74-year-old couldn’t get up because she has arthritis and afterwards showed police a bruise on her shin caused by Noble throwing something at her.
Noble’s girlfriend, who had moved with him to the bungalow, had her hands cut as she tried to disarm Noble. She managed to get both herself and the grandmother into the conservatory where she barricaded the door with a sofa.
Noble smashed a conservatory window with a metal chair or crate and was throwing other things around the building.
When police arrived, he was waving a two-metre-long walking stick and refused to let them in. Police got in by smashing a window. One officer suffered bruising to his upper arm and a mark to his knee and a second suffered tissue damage to her wrist and had to have it put in a splint.
Noble spat on the third officer’s face, which the judge called “disgusting”.
For Noble, Rhianydd Clement said he had suffered physical and emotional abuse as a child and had personal issues which he had tried to deal with by using drugs and drinking alcohol.
“He buried his head in the sand in not addressing his problems,” she said. “He realises he cannot continue down this path.”
Noble had since stopped taking drugs and stopped misusing alcohol and had seen an improvement in his mental health.
