AN angry man wielded a metal pole, pushed over a boy and threatened to petrol bomb his ex’s house.

Stephen Collett had already served the equivalent of a 20 month prison sentence on remand during the Covid pandemic while waiting to be sentenced.

Even though he was jailed this week the effect of the sentence was that he could be released immediately, having already served his time on remand.

He admitted common assault against a 15-year-old boy on September 7 last year and intimidation of the boy’s mother between September 10 and 16 last year who was due to be a witness in criminal proceedings against him.

The 35-year-old of Radford Court, Kidderminster appeared at Worcester Crown Court on Tuesday.

Timothy Sapwell said Collett had followed the woman to her friend’s house in Kidderminster and when she left at 3am she saw him in the street with a ‘pole in his hand’.

He told her he wanted her back and said ‘he’s going to make their lives miserable and petrol bomb their house’. She returned to her friend’s house and left again at 6am.

When she returned home the defendant was described as jumping down from a balcony as the woman’s son moved some bins, grabbing hold of the youth and ‘pushing him really hard’ so that he fell backwards through a fence panel, injuring his leg which was described as ‘swollen and painful’.

He then called his ex on several occasions, telling her that her son would be ‘ripped apart’ under cross-examination in a court case against him and asking her not to let him go to court.

On September 16 police were called and the defendant was ‘bitten by a police dog but managed to get away'. He was arrested on October 2 last year.

The defendant has 44 convictions for 127 offences between 2000 and 2016 including for criminal damage, failing to comply with community orders, battery, threats to kill and breaching a restraining order. In total he has 13 previous convictions for violence.

Michael Aspinall, defending, said there was ‘no suggestion the pole was used as a weapon’ or ‘used in any way to threaten’.

He said the main thrust of his mitigation was that his client had already served the equivalent of 19 to 20 month sentence on remand.

He said his client had ‘become emotional’ and ‘bitterly regrets’ his actions.

Mr Aspinall said Collett had been in custody since the beginning of October last year.

“He has spent a large proportion of that in Covid lockdown for 23 hours a day. He has found it particularly difficult” he said.

During that time he had effectively become ‘an enhanced prisoner’ in HMP Hewell, is no longer taking drugs and has the promise of work from a construction company.

Judge Martin Jackson sentenced him to 18 months in prison and imposed a 10 year restraining order in relation to both the woman and her son.