Reading Crown Court: Upper Bucklebury man who puled gun on neighbours is jailed
A MAN who terrorised his neighbours and pulled a gun on them has been jailed.
Earlier, the raging assailant had launched an unprovoked attack on the terrified family, throttling one of them before repeatedly punching him in the face.
Jonathank Sank, prosecuting, told Reading Crown Court on Tuesday, June 20, that Sue Dollin, a woman in her mid 70s who uses a walking frame, lived next door, but one to the defendant, Stuart Gale, in Roundfield, Upper Bucklebury.
On the day in question, added Mr Sank, Gale banged on her door clutching a
shovel.
When she answered it, he snarled: “Tell your boys to stop spreading s*** about me in the pub.”
Mrs Dollin replied that her sons, Mark and Paul, did not go to the pub.
Gale responded by brandishing the shovel and warning he would be “using it to dig some graves”.
When the sons arrived they were shocked and bewildered, the court heard.
Soon afterwards, Gale was back, banging loudly on the door and damaging a CCTV camera.
When Mark Dollin opened the door, said Mr Sank, he forced his way in and then grabbed him by the throat, pinning him to the wall.
Mr Sank added: “Mr Gale said: ‘What’s all this s*** rumours you’re spreading about me?’
“He was squeezing Mark’s throat so that he was struggling to breathe.”
With one hand around Mr Dollin’s throat, Gale used his other to punch him repeatedly in the face, the judge was told.
When Mr Dollin’s wife Lesley tried to call police, Gale tried to snatch the phone from her and tried to punch her, said Mr Sank.
Gale then left but, minutes later returned with his brothers, banging on the door and ripping a gate from its moorings.
Mrs Dollin wept in fear, the court heard, but Gale was not able to get in and left with his brothers.
But the family’s ordeal was still not over.
Mr Sank said: “Mr Gale came back again – and this time he had a black handgun.
“He went to the side door, but it was locked.
“He was banging on doors and the Dollin family were terrified.”
In fact, the gun was a loaded, gas-powered ball bearing gun, but they believed it was a real pistol.
Mr Sank said: “They thought he had come to shoot them and believed he was capable of doing so.”
Mrs Dollin said in a victim impact statement she was now terrified in her own home and feared Gale would one day exact retribution on her family because he was arrested.
Gale admitted criminal damage, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, common assault and possession of an imitation weapon with intent to cause fear of violence on Wednesday, May 10.
Helen Dawson, defending, said the offence was out of character and triggered by alcohol abuse.
She added that her client was tackling his substance abuse problems and was remorseful.
Judge Recorder Bate-Williams sentenced Gale to 22 months imprisonment, half of which he will spend behind bars and the remainder on licence in the community.
He also made a restraining order to protect the Dollin family from him.
