Court bans drunk Derbyshire dad with “bipolar” reaction to cannabis from son’s home

Eric Beresford arrived outside his son’s Somercotes home several times in the autumn of last year, shouting and swearing as neighbours looked on.

Chesterfield Magistrates Court told how on November 16 Beresford, 58, was seen shouting “open your f****** window” and “come down and fight me”.

Prosecutor Sarah Haslam told how the defendant then threw a can of beer at the open window - which splashed all over his son’s face.

“Embarrassment” Beresford then punched his son’s work van three times - leaving a dent in one of its panels.

Beresford’s son said in a victim statement read out in court that when his father was not drunk or smoking cannabis he was “fine - a normal person”.

However when Beresford was under the influence, it was “like he has bipolar - the difference is that big”.

The court heard the defendant’s war veteran son was “concerned” Beresford would show up when he was not home and “scare” his wife and children.

Magistrates heard how two days before Beresford attended his son’s home on November 16 the drunk dad had harangued staff at Somercotes’ Market Square Co-op.

After they turned him away at 6am when the shop was closed he returned at 9am and squirted beer he had just bought over customers before announcing he had “Covid”.

During a third appearance at the store the same morning he started “flailing his arms around and shouting”.

Prosecutor Sarah Haslam said Beresford had previous convictions for being drunk and disorderly and assault.

His solicitor John Wilford told the court his client accepted “his conflicts with the law and police have all been in drink”.

Beresford, of Pennytown Court, Somercotes, admitted common assault, criminal damage, two counts of threatening behaviour, being drunk and disorderly and cannabis possession.

He was handed a 12-month community order with 10 rehabilitation activity sessions, a two-month curfew and ordered to pay £250 compensation for the damage to his son’s van.

He was given a year’s restraining order not to attend Somercotes Co-op at Market Square or his son’s home.

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