Longridge mum-of-three forced to move home and children's school after being targeted by a masked gang

Preston Crown Court heard the family had fled their home in Longridge after a late-night attack by three hammer-wielding men and their woman driver.

It was claimed the four made three threatening visits to the terraced house in Mersey Street inside 40 minutes, finally smashing up the lounge and kitchen.

Brandon Howarth, 27, Dylan Muir, 20, Andrew Wilson, 29, and 31-year-old Abigail Walmsley all appeared before a judge after pleading guilty to offences involving burglary, assault, criminal damage and possessing offensive weapons.

They will be sentenced on Monday after Judge Paul Hodgkinson said he needed more time to consider how to deal with them.

The court was told the attack, sparked by a confrontation with another man earlier in the day, began at around 11pm on September 9 last year.

Walmsley drove her white Ford Mondeo car up the street with the three men inside, all wearing face coverings. They threw beer bottles at a woman who was visiting the house and then left.

But about 10 minutes later the householder heard a smashing sound and found a large vodka bottle had been thrown through her front window. When she went outside there was no-one visible.

Half an hour after that Walmsley’s car returned and all four got out. They pushed the woman inside the house shouting: “Where is he?” All four smelled of alcohol.

One of them said: “We don’t mess about. Smash the gaff up.” They then set about smashing up the downstairs of the property with hammers, damaging a TV, a washing machine, a tumble drier and a fridge-freezer.

While all this was going on the woman’s three children were in bed upstairs.

It is alleged Walmsley got hold of the householder by her hair and started “ragging her about the head”. The four then left, damaging the front door as they went.

At one point the woman had screamed: “What are you doing? My kids are upstairs in bed.”

When police stopped the car soon after, driver Walmsley was breathalysed and found to be over the drink-drive limit. Her front windscreen was smashed and the vehicle had no front number plate.

The prosecution argued that the offences that night had been aggravated by the fact that the accused had made three separated visits to the house that night, there were children present, all four had been drinking and they had tried to hide their identities using face coverings. Some also carried weapons (hammers).

But the most serious matter was the family had been forced to move out of the area for fear of a repeat.

Defence barrister Holly Nelson, representing Walmsley of Higher Peak Crescent, Clitheroe, said her client was not aware there were children in the house at the time.

“She was misguided, she didn’t have a balaclava on and she knows that she only has herself to blame for her actions.”

She said Walmsley, a single parent with two young children, had no previous convictions prior to this case and her behaviour was “extremely out of character”. She accepted she was just as responsible as the others for what happened that night.

“She understands the impact she has had and she is, frankly, mortified. She wants to be a better person and a better mother and turn away from where she was when this offending occurred”

Ms Nelson added that Walmsley was concerned how her own children, aged three and four, would cope with her being sent to prison.

Judge Hodgkinson interjected: “It’s a bit rich she is worried about her children, (yet) she launched the attack she did with three children upstairs. Thankfully they didn’t witness it.”

Tom Lord, defending Muir of Stirling Street, Blackburn, said his client was classed psychologically as “extremely low functioning”. As a result he was “more susceptible to following requests and demands by his peer group”.

He had been a special educational needs pupil at school, had been moved around to multiple schools as a child and had been in foster care in the Blackpool area with a couple who were willing to take him in again.

Ellie Watson, for Howarth, of Higher Peak Crescent, Clitheroe, said her client had no objection to any restraining order the court might make because he didn’t know the victim and wasn’t aware there were children in the house at the time.

She said he had never been in custody before and had now spent five months behind bars on remand. He had alcohol and mental health issues which could have been a trigger for his offending that night.

“He is remorseful. He does regret being involved in this,” she added. “He does recognise the triggers of his offending. He accepts the reality that your honour will take the view of a custodial sentence here. But I would urge you to take a step back from immediate custody.”

Ellie McManus, for Wilson, of Coleridge Street, Blackburn, said her client was remorseful and was not attempting to minimise his behaviour that night.

“He has expressed his shame, in particular that children were present at the address. He was not aware of the fact children were or were going to be present.

“He has said he is very sorry about the impact (it had) on her, her family and her children and that they have had to leave the address and their schools.

“He says he understands it would have been very frightening and very distressing to the family. He accepts he deserves to be punished.”

Judge Hodgkinson said there were many issues he had to consider before sentencing the four and so decided to adjourn the hearing until Monday.

He told them: “I want to approach it (sentencing) with some care. It is not a very simple case.”

While Walmsley had previously been on bail the judge remanded her in custody along with Howarth, Muir and Wilson.