Menace smashed windows at job centre and threw smoke bomb inside as revenge for being "forced" into work
A menace smashed windows at a job centre and threw a smoke bomb inside as revenge for being "forced" to work.
Trevor Murphy used a tool to shatter five windows at the building in Alnwick, Northumberland, then hurled a red cannister containing a smoke bomb through one of the broken panes.
Newcastle Crown Court heard staff and customers were left in "complete fear".
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Murphy had already attacked a community mental health hub with a hammer earlier that day and has warned probation officials: "Im not done yet".It was on the afternoon of March 1 2024 that he borrowed a car and went to a mental health team community hub in Alnwick, where he caused £4,877 of damage to the NHS building by breaking windows.
Less than an hour later, he was at the job centre, where he caused £5,475 of damage to the windows.
Sentencing him, Recorder Andrew Haslam KC said: "You then threw a smoke bomb through one of the broken windows of the premises.
“A security guard describes how the smoke overwhelmed the room and left staff feeling shocked and concerned. Those inside can't have known what caused the smoke and they must have been very frightened."
After his arrest, two days later Murphy, 62, of Sycamore Avenue, Alnwick, assaulted a police officer at Middle Engine Lane police station, lashing out and trying to bite him and spitting towards him.
The PC, who struck Murphy to stop him, was left with grazing to his neck and arm and pain to his knee and back.Recorder Haslam said the pre-sentence report in Murphy's case makes "bleak reading".
He added: "You told the probation officer you felt let down by the mental health services, lied to by medical professionals and forced to work by the job centre.
You said they forced you to work when incapable, resulting in the loss of accommodation because you couldn't pay your rent.
"You accused the police of torturing you during your detention at the police station and you also blamed the police for the breakdown of your marriage.
"You expressed no remorse, telling the author of the pre-sentence report you were 'not done yet' which they took as a threat of similar violence towards the police, job centre and mental health services and other public services.
“It can't be taken in any other way in my opinion."
The recorder added: "Your intention was to frighten those in the job centre because you believed they were to blame for your problems. In relation to the mental health hub and the job centre, you wanted to exact revenge because you believed they had let you down."
Murphy, who has 74 previous convictions but nothing since 2004, was found guilty of two counts of damaging property and one of affray. He pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency worker.
He was jailed for a total of 34 months.