Man banned from Bolton intimidated witness in Farnworth

Jordan Lee Thompson, 22, had been in Farnworth on June 30 last year when he saw the woman on her own.

Bolton Crown Court heard how he had been in the town despite being banned under the terms of his bail conditions when the woman noticed him behind her.

Prosecutor Megan Edwards said: “She had realised she was being followed.

“She stopped, looked round and saw the defendant, about four metres behind her on his phone.”

The case was heard at Bolton Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

Ms Edwards told the court how the woman had been a witness in a separate case against Thompson.

He approached her and said: “You’re getting what’s coming to you because you phoned the police.”

Ms Edwards said: “He then continued walking on, laughing and sniggering.”

The woman then took a taxi home before calling the police and Thompson was arrested.

The 21-year-old continued to deny his crime and was convicted of intimidating a witness in his absence at a trial.

Angela Bennett, defending, accepted that this meant Thompson, who has a previous conviction for battery “was not entitled to any credit whatsoever.”

But she said that his learning difficulties and autism meant that he did not fully understand the impact of his crime.

Ms Bennett said that Thompson, of no fixed abode, had “kept his head down” while in custody and was determined never to come before the courts again.

She said: “He is absolutely terrified, every day in custody has been a terror to him.”

She added: “He’s learnt his lesson, he doesn’t want to come before the courts again, he’s terrified of custody.

“He wants the chance to improve his life and the lives of everybody around him.”  

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But Judge Jon Close reminded the defendant that been forbidden from entering Bolton at all that day and that threatening a witness was “an attack on the justice system itself.”

Though he accepted that Thompson had struggled with his learning disability and his “unstructured and unstable life” he said this was did not explain his crime.

Judge Close said: “What does is a sense of entitlement and a sense of bullying.”

He added: “This was in my judgement a premeditated decision to ignore bail conditions and follow her down the road.”

Judge Close sentenced Thompson to ten months in prison and hit him with a restraining order keeping him away from his victim for five years.