By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 12:47, Saturday, 24 November 2012

A drunken yob blamed “bad influences” in Carlisle for leading him into the drink-fuelled behaviour that saw him jailed for two years.

Donovan Hetherington, of Carlisle: Jailed for a year for drink-driving and assault with another 12 months for breaching an ASBO

Donovan Andrew Hetherington, 30, says he wants to keep out of trouble but finds it impossible to do so because people who know him keep leading him astray.

“He is well known in Carlisle as someone who is easy to wind up and he has a lot of problems in that regard,” his barrister Tim Evans told Judge Paul Batty QC.

“One of his biggest problems is simply his being here.”

He said Hetherington had managed to stay out of trouble while living in Liverpool, where “very much against the odds” he had managed to hold down a job as a door-to-door fundraiser for the St John Ambulance.

“He knows what he has to do – he has to steer clear of drink and get out of Carlisle,” Mr Evans said.

Hetherington, of Blackwell Road, Currock, was in Carlisle Crown Court for repeatedly breaching the anti-social behaviour order imposed on him in 2010 after he was constantly found drunk in the city centre.

Before the case could begin he had to convince the judge – by answering a few simple questions, like what his full name was – that he was not as intoxicated as he appeared.

He insisted he was not drunk and said that if he appeared to be so it was because of the alcohol he had got through the night before.

Prosecuting counsel Greg Hoare said Hetherington had broken the ASBO several times – including by fighting with a man outside the railway station, shouting abuse at his brother’s partner and squaring up to his girlfriend in the street – all after drinking too much.

In May Judge Batty deferred sentence on him for offences of drink-driving and assault, challenging him not to commit any further offences for six months.

But, Mr Hoare said, on one night in September – after getting drunk on £100 he had won at the bookies’ – he stood half naked outside his brother’s house, shouting insults at his girlfriend.

Two weeks later police had to be called when Hetherington got into an argument with his own girlfriend outside the Outrageous nightspot.

The court heard that Hetherington had 39 previous convictions.

Hetherington was jailed for a year for the drink-driving and assault, with another 12 months for breaching the ASBO with his drunken behaviour.

First published at 12:42, Saturday, 24 November 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk