By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 12:00, Thursday, 30 August 2012

A man threatened to petrol bomb a pub after being thrown out for being abusive to a barman, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

Joseph Thurlow made the threat after Hallie Shaw, landlady of the Brewery House pub in Great Broughton told him to leave.

The 50-year-old – described in court as “something of a local character” – went home as instructed.

But, prosecutor Dick Binstead said, he returned to the pub later with a plastic bottle, containing what was at first thought to be petrol.

He asked to speak to Ms Shaw, and when she came out to talk to him he “without warning produced the bottle from his pocket”, Mr Binstead said.

He then threatened to squirt the liquid over “them lot” – gesturing at a group of local youths with whom he had been behaving “in quite a bizarre fashion” earlier.

Then, Mr Binstead said, Thurlow told Ms Shaw he would burn her and her pub too.

“By this stage she was very afraid and felt he was quite capable of putting his threat into effect,” Mr Binstead said.

“She did though have sufficient composure to tell him to leave . . . and tell him that she would be calling the police.”

Thurlow was found shortly afterwards, “very intoxicated” and sitting on the doorstep of a friend’s house in Church Meadows.

When police arrested him, the court heard, a knife fell out of his hand.

Thurlow, who lives with his wife in Ghyll Bank, Little Broughton, pleaded guilty to two charges – threatening to destroy or damage the Brewery House and carrying a knife with no legitimate reason.

The court heard that Thurlow had “deep-seated alcohol and psychiatric problems”, as a result of which he had become a target for abuse in the community.

A previous landlord had banned him from the Brewery House, but Ms Shaw had relaxed the ban when she took over.

She had now reimposed it, making it clear to Thurlow he was no longer welcome.

Thurlow was given a community order, under which he will be supervised by probation officers for two years. He was also ordered to undergo six months alcohol rehabilitation.

First published at 11:24, Thursday, 30 August 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk