He rode off on a bicycle after she challenged him
A drug-addicted career criminal with a huge list of more than 100 previous offences angrily assaulted a woman after she confronted and challenged him when she suddenly spotted him lurking around in her mother’s back garden with a bag of stolen items.
Regular thief Jamie Bird was stuck in a “revolving door” of serving prison sentences, being released and going back to committing crime to feed his drug addiction. He was in danger of “serving a life sentence in instalments” if he carried on like that, Hull Crown Court heard.
Bird, 38, formerly of St John’s Grove, east Hull, but recently in custody, admitted assaulting the woman, causing actual bodily harm, and theft on February 9. He pleaded guilty to theft on the day of a scheduled trial for burglary.
Blaise Morris, prosecuting, said that Bird had been in a relationship with a woman for a few months but they separated. The woman’s daughter went to her mother’s home in Staveley Road, east Hull, because she lived nearby and she saw Bird in the rear garden.
She asked him what he was doing there and told him that he should not be there. He claimed that he was there to collect a bicycle.
It was discovered that the house had been broken into by someone but the prosecution did not now suggest that this was Bird. He was holding a garden fork.
While he was in the garden, Bird stole items that were in a bag, including shoes, tablets, makeup and hair curlers. It was claimed that these items had been left in the garden and that Bird picked them up.
It was not claimed by the prosecution that Bird was jointly involved with someone else. The daughter thought at the time that Bird had been inside the house and she was worried that property had gone missing.
After he was challenged, Bird rode off on a bicycle but the daughter followed him in her car. She got out of the car and asked him for the items back in Freemantle Avenue.
There was a struggle and he pushed her to the ground, causing her thumb to be “over-extended” and bent back and her thigh, arm and back to be hurt. She said of her thumb: “I had it in a brace for a couple of days.”
The incident was seen by others. “The defendant was then restrained by members of the public,” said Mr Morris. The property in the bag was recovered after being left at the scene. During police interview, Bird made no comment to all questions. He had convictions for 111 previous offences. They included assault causing actual bodily harm in 2010 and two offences of assaulting police in 2018. He was jailed for 16 weeks on October 23 for shop theft and was also jailed for seven weeks on March 19 for theft and handling stolen goods.
Connor Stuart, mitigating, said that the theft offence was opportunist with very little planning. The injury was caused to someone he once saw as family because of his relationship with the woman’s mother. “It was a short-lived assault as a result of her speaking to him about the bag,” said Mr Stuart.
“It was a matter of minutes before he was very quickly restrained by members of the public and taken to the ground.” He had shown deep remorse and he realised, while in custody, that he needed to stay away from crack cocaine. “He is now in a better frame of mind,” said Mr Stuart.
Judge Richard Woolfall told Bird: “You are pretty much in a revolving door situation where you spend short periods in custody and you go back out committing offences to feed your drug addiction. You are going to end up serving a life sentence in instalments if you go on like that.”
Bird was jailed for nine months and he was given a five-year restraining order.