Derbyshire man terrorised care home staff with a knife

Ryan Morley told the manager at the supported living accommodation on Bluebell Way he had stopped taking his medication, on June 20, last year, said prosecutor Gordana Turudija-Austin.

He banged on the staff room door and shoved a care worker in the chest, before fetching a knife and banging on the door of a resident's flat.

Staff locked themselves in the office and police were called. When he was asked what he intended to do with the knife, Morley replied he felt like hurting himself, and officers noted a cut on his arm.

In a separate incident on January 11, at 9.40am, he became angry and agitated because he believed he was being treated differently.

He shouted so close to a trainee carer "she could feel his saliva on her face," said Ms Gordana Turudija-Austin.

Morley picked up an office computer and, after he failed to open a window, threw it on the floor. He refused to comply with police and kicked an officer in the groin as he was being arrested.

The court heard he has four previous convictions for eight offences of "relatively low-level violence" and was last in court for harassment, in 2019.

Rebecca Coleman, mitigating, said he had been remanded in custody since January.

“He repeatedly expressed his remorse and has no desire to return to prison,” she said, adding that staff at the home were willing to take him back.

Morley, 27, pleaded guilty to affray, common assault, assaulting an emergency worker, resisting a police officer and criminal damage, on January 12.

Judge John Sampson told him: "You're a young man and you're not heavily convicted. You clearly have mental health issues. Your behaviour is erratic and to some extent caused by not taking your medication.

"You have not yet exhausted their patience. You are lucky. Take the assistance you are being offered. If you get into trouble again you will go back to jail."

He sentenced Morley to ten months, suspended for 18 months, with 20 rehabilitation days.

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