Man threatened to petrol bomb gran's home

Shaun Carter, 49, of Millbank, Fulwood, Preston, had been jetwashing the woman’s property - but things turned sour when her grandson, who had a feud with Carter’s son - turned up.

Preston Magistrates’ Court heard Carter’s son Jerome, had fallen out with the man, Daniel Grant, a few years earlier.

Michael Leech, defending, said Carter attended the victim’s home on October 25, not realising the link until Daniel Grant arrived with his mum and exchanged “unpleasant words”.

He admitted using threatening behaviour.

Mr Leech said: “ It is an unsavoury incident but it’s much ado about children and the relationship between Daniel Grant and their son Jerome.

“For a number of years they have tried to wean their son from the relationship he had with Mr Grant, and quite properly, but it has caused difficulty, not least of all when unwisely Jerome started to date Daniel Grant’s former girlfriend.

“It’s a recipe for dispute between the two families and it’s culminated in this short lived incident which is, in effect, a chance encounter.

“He made the remarks. He did not intend them to be taken seriously, they were made in the heat of the moment and he assures me after he’d said them he apologised three times.”

In a statement the woman said she was frightened her home would be petrol bombed whilst she was in it or even asleep in bed.

District Judge Jane Goodwin suspended his six week sentence for a year and imposed 80 hours unpaid work.