Community payback worker jailed for verbally abusing Chester cemetery mourner

Joshua Peter Jones, 27, of Steam Mill Street, Chester, was part of a community payback team doing unpaid work at Overleigh Cemetery when he verbally abused a woman who was trying to pay respects to her late father.

At Chester Crown Court on Friday, July 22, Honorary Recorder of Chester Judge Steven Everett blasted the breach of Jones's suspended sentence order as "disgraceful" and activated the defendant's four-month jail sentence.

The judge also slammed the probation service for failing to refer two other men involved in the incident at Overleigh Cemetery on June 14, whose behaviour was described as "equally bad or worse", to the court for breach proceedings.

Jones had originally received a four-month prison term, suspended for 18 months, and told to complete 150 hours unpaid work in September last year, as punishment for being part of a gang which imported kilos of cannabis from the USA to post to addresses across the UK.

Prosecuting for the breach of the order, Myles Wilson said it was a small group of men involved who were working on maintenance at Overleigh Cemetery in Handbridge during the daytime.

Member of the public Maxine Houghton was there to visit her father's grave, but found the pathway blocked by a white van the group had been using.

The group were having their lunch and their supervisor had gone to get his lunch from an outbuilding.

One of the men – not the defendant – put his arm out to block Ms Houghton from proceeding and started laughing at her. When she called him "a silly boy", he replied with verbal abuse.

Ms Houghton then described Jones asking "what her f****** problem was", before she was told by Jones to "f*** off".

The victim felt intimidated and swore in response, and went over to a vehicle where she thought was the team supervisor, but was instead a third member of the community payback team, who said: "Why don't you f*** off?"

The victim began taking photos of the trio, saying she would report the matter to the police.

The court heard the team supervisor arrived and "tried to defuse the situation".

Honorary Recorder of Chester Judge Steven Everett. Picture: Andrew Price/View Finder Pictures.

But Judge Everett said the supervisor had actually told Ms Houghton to stop taking the photos, which was "completely the wrong decision".

He added: "I regret to say there was greater thought for the unpaid workers than the victim of this despicable behaviour."

The supervisor ended the unpaid work session for that day and, the court heard, Ms Houghton was spoken to by the operation manager for unpaid work, where she gave her account of what happened.

Judge Everett criticised the probation service after they asked Ms Houghton – who had posted her photos on Facebook to try and identify who was responsible for the verbal abuse – to take down said photos because of GDPR rules.

The judge said: "Their behaviour was outrageous; GDPR should not have come to their assistance. If she put them on Facebook saying 'do you know these men?', she would have been entitled to do so. The probation service just did not get a grip of this at all."

Defending Jones, Richard Thomas said the incident should have been referred to police, and the other two men involved should have been referred to court for their part, as sentencing only Jones for this was "unfair".

Jones had accepted swearing at Ms Houghton, saying he had done so on the basis he had been told "he should be in prison" by the victim.

Mr Thomas added Jones was "a fragile young man" who had "rebuilt his life" since last year's conviction, having stopped taking drugs, and was in full-time employment at a management position in a Chester bar.

Judge Everett told Jones: "When I gave you a chance [last September] I told you to stay out of trouble for 18 months and comply with all orders. You were expected to do the unpaid work properly and if not, I would have said you would come back before me.

"There are a lot of people who walk in Overleigh Cemetery; there is an area for quiet contemplation. It's well-known and well-loved by residents of Chester.

"It does not matter this lady had already been abused by two fellow workers, or whether or not she told you you should be in prison. The reality is you should have recognised she was angry. You behaved in a disgraceful manner.

"If you had told someone at a bar where you work to 'f*** off' you would have got your marching orders.

"I gave you a chance and you blew it in a particularly unpleasant way."

The judge asked a representative from the probation service why only Jones was referred to the court for the breach, while the two other men involved were only given a verbal warning and more unpaid work.

He said: "They were rude and aggressive in the most disgusting manner."

The probation service representative told the court: "We should have had more of a co-ordinated response.

"This does not happen a lot in the probation service, we do the unpaid work supervising well most of the time, but I am not excusing what has happened.

"I want to assure the court that we are managing a lot of orders up and down the country and we do have a good handle on the people. On this occasion we have definitely fallen short and...the matter has been brought to the attention of our enforcement hub, and we will be looking at the lessons learned from this."

The court heard that, if possible, the cases for the other two men would be reviewed and they could potentially be brought before the court at a future date.