A COURT has heard a daughter’s heart-rending account of how a man’s alcoholism has cast a shadow over his and his family’s life.

Derek Rutherford, 46, was put before a judge at Carlisle Crown Court after he admitted two theft offences which involved him stealing alcohol and breaching a restraining order designed to protect his family.

Prosecutor Kim Whittlestone outlined how the defendant, of Solway Road, Whitehaven, stole the alcohol from the Pelican Garage in Loop Road, Whitehaven, on consecutive days in October. On both occasions he stole cans of lager, the court heard.

He committed the restraining order breach on October 16.

His adult daughter had been at home in Whitehaven when she heard noises in the kitchen, as if cupboard doors were being opened. When she checked, she was met by the sight of her father, his face almost hidden under a hoodie top that was pulled tight around his face. Yet a court order had banned him from the house.

Miss Whittlestone said: “He told her not to phone the police, saying: ‘I’m in up to my neck already.’” He blamed his actions on a brain injury.

In a statement, his daughter spoke of how Rutherford became aggressive after drinking - something he did even before his brain injury. His alcoholism left her stressed and angry. “I don’t feel safe in my own home,” she said.

“He was meant to have surgery to reconstruct his skull but he was never sober enough to have the operation,” she said.

He would emotionally blackmail her, saying he would kill himself if she called the police. She had to live with people constantly saying that they had seen her father passed out and drunk in town. Passing helicopters made her fear he had fallen from the cliffs.

David Wales, for Rutherford, said the defendant was a former rugby player, whose epilepsy was contributed to by knocks on the head he sustained.

While walking with his son, he had a seizure, hitting his head on concrete post, sustaining a significant injury.

As a result, he suffered memory loss and an inability to control impulses.

Jailing him for nine months, Judge Nicholas Barker told Rutherford: “There’s ample evidence you knew what you were doing; that you should not be there [at his daughter’s home]. You knew what you were doing was wrong.”

The restraining order will run for a further four years.