A DRINKER ejected from a Kendal pub because he smuggled in his own booze tried to act like a “big time criminal,” threatening to shoot and "cut up" a doorman.

Jamie Thornborrow, 34, initially denied any wrongdoing but, on the day his trial was due to start, he admitted threatening the doorman with a bladed article.

At Carlisle Crown Court, prosecutor Brendan Burke described how the defendant was in the White Hart pub in Kendal on May 14 when staff spotted that he was drinking from his own bottle of vodka.

As a result of this, the defendant was escorted off the premises.

But once he was outside the Highgate pub Thornborrow turned his anger on to one of the doorman, telling him he would use the vodka bottle to “smash him”.

Mr Burke said: “Having been ejected, he walked off along Highgate, but then returned holding the vodka bottle and said [to the doorman]: ‘I’ll smash you with this.’”

The doorman took the bottle off Thornborrow.

In a brief moment of courtesy, the defendant asked to have it back but the doorman refused, pointing out that he had just been threatened with it.

Thornborrow's response was to say:  “You’re right, I’ll smash you."

Mr Burke continued: “He then went on to say: ‘I’ll shoot you. Me and my family will be back in half an hour and we’ll shoot you. You’re over; you’re finished.”

Thornborrow repeated the same thing for the next five minutes, continuing to make threats even as the doorman was on the phone to the police. At points, he was poking the doorman in the face as he spoke.

“Then a Stanley fell from the defendant’s pocket,” said Mr Burke.

“[The doorman] went  to pick it up but the defendant got there before him… Having picked up the Stanley knife, the defendant said: ‘Look here, I have a knife; I’ll cut you up. I will kill you with this, God bless.”

As he spoke, he pointed the blade towards the doorman. When the police arrived, Thornborrow ran away along Finkle Street and joined a group of friends.

Mr Burke then read extracts from the doorman’s personal victim statement, in which he confirmed that in 25 years of doing that work he had never before been threatened with knife.

“It was a very scary situation,” he said.

He said he thought about the incident often and regularly now looked over his shoulder. Concerned by the threats Thornborrow had made, he  no longer goes to Kendal for fear that he may bump into the defendant.

“He was presenting himself as a big-time criminal with associates,” said the man. He spoke also of how what happened had affected his mental health.

The court heard that Thornborrow’s criminal record consists of 35 previous convictions, with crimes of dishonesty, three drink driving offences, criminal damage, court order breaches, and violence, including an actual bodily harm assault.

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He was also jailed for 27 months in 2021 for offences that included him threatening to burn down a person’s house. Nine months of the sentence was punishment for carrying a bladed article, the court heard.

Anthony Parkinson, defending, said the court should consider two “redeeming” features that were mentioned in a background report on Thornborrow, of Sparrowmire Lane, Kendal.

One was that Thornborrow had committed no further offences since the incident outside the pub and the other was the bundle of references presented to the court.

The barrister recognised that the defendant’s inability to control his anger – particularly when he was in drink – caused risk.

“Whilst a custodial sentence would punish him,” said Mr Parkinson, “in terms of reducing the risk in the long-term intervention is required.”

Mr Parkinson accepted that the defendant deserved prison but, given that Thornborrow spent 205 days on curfew since May – the equivalent of 103 days’ jail – a sentence based on rehabilitation would benefit not just him but the whole community.

The use of the knife to threaten the victim appeared to be an “afterthought” and no injury was caused, added the barrister.

Judge Michael Fanning noted how the defendant had been getting into trouble for 20 years and had a “tendency to aggression,” whether in drink or not. Whilst the knife was not thrust towards the victim, the doorman was providing a public service.

“I don’t see a realistic prospect of rehabilitation, or particularly strong personal mitigation,” remarked the judge, adding that Thornborrow also had a poor record for complying with court orders.

He jailed the defendant for 18 months.