A man who destroyed his landlord’s house with a mechanical digger after a dispute over rent was jailed for six years yesterday.
Robert Taylor, 53, hired a digger on June 27 and drove it into the four-bedroom house of James Havard, 47, and his partner, Janice Gledhill, 52, the jury was told. He also admitted destroying three cars and assaulting a policeman who tried to stop him. Taylor admitted destroying the property, which stood in Bradwell-on-Sea, and being reckless as to whether life was endangered.
PC Martyn Leggett, 24, who was assaulted as he climbed on to the digger to try to stop Taylor, said: “I have never seen anything like it in my life.”
Ms Gledhill saw him approach and called the police, but Taylor was focused on his “frenzy of destruction”, the court was told.
On the day of the attack, she had said that she rang the police as soon as Mr Taylor arrived. “The police told me to get out . . . They couldn’t do anything to stop him. I couldn’t reason with him. We are just devastated.”
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Two months earlier, Taylor ran the son of his former girlfriend off the road with a tractor, the jury was told. They also heard that, at the time of the incident, Taylor was serving a community penalty.
Psychiatrists said that Taylor was not mentally ill. Judge Anthony Goldstaub, QC, said that Taylor would serve half his sentence before being released on licence.