Derbyshire addict subjected mum to ‘reign of terror’ while demanding cash for habit

Connor Smith tried to bite his mother while climbing through her kitchen window in Ilkeston and threatening to kill her, on March 4, last year, said prosecutor Laura Pitman. Smith, aged 22, told her he wanted to slit her throat and hear her gargle on her own blood.

Nottingham Crown Court heard Smith stalked his mother between July 2021 and March 2022, by persistently hounding her for cash. In a statement she said: "It has been hell. He clearly has a drug problem. He has changed so much, so quickly that he is not my son any more."

She described 'non-stop bullying and harassment' saying he would demand as much as £250 and threatened to kill himself if she didn't pay. Smith sent pictures of himself with knives to his throat and told her he would live-stream his suicide on Facebook. 'Scary people' have turned up at her house at 4am because he owed them money for drug debts, said Ms Pitman.

Connor Smith ’lured’ a former friend to Jago Inquieti's home on Wagtail Close, Stapleford, where they drank vodka and took drugs on August 5, last year. Smith stabbed the man twice in the left leg and once under the arm. While the pair grappled Inquieti shouted encouragement before hitting the man over the head with a bottle.

Their blood-covered victim ran out of the house without his shoes, jumped over a fence and was seen by a passing police car. His wounds were sutured at the QMC Hospital.

David Outterside said Smith had 'expressed real regret and remorse' and has taken great strides to deal with his drug problem. His baby son died, aged only six weeks, in June 2021 and he turned to drugs afterwards.

Stefan Fox said Inquieti suffers from cognitive difficulties and mental health issues. There has been no further offending since.

Judge Wiliam Harbage KC sentenced Smith, 22, formerly of Awsworth Road, Ilkeston, to three years after he admitted unlawful wounding and stalking, and imposed a five-year restraining order. Inquieti, 25, admitted unlawful wounding and received 18 months.