He was squirting it around and setting fire to the spray
A drug-addicted heavy drinker used a can of deodorant to “spray flames around” in a supermarket as part of a determined bid to get himself arrested and sent back to prison. Alex Rooney deliberately set light to the spray that he was recklessly squirting around from the canister and he used the flames as a “highly dangerous weapon” to cause panic and alarm.
His frightening actions forced staff to tell customers to leave the store through the fire escape, Hull Crown Court heard. Rooney, 27, of High Street, Hull, but recently in custody on remand, admitted threatening a person with an offensive weapon in public on July 13.
Ashley Lambert-Jefferson, prosecuting, said that police were called to the Tesco store in King Edward Street, Hull city centre, at about 7.40pm after a report of Rooney causing problems with a deodorant canister that he was using to light the spray and cause flames to be squirted around. Staff at the store closed the front door and let customers out through a fire escape.
Rooney used the canister to spray flames in the direction of police. He was agitated and was telling officers to get away. A police officer approached Rooney at the moment that the flames stopped.
“It was a highly dangerous weapon,” said Mr Lambert-Jefferson. Rooney was taken to the floor and he was disarmed and arrested. He was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary to be assessed.
Rooney later told police that his actions were a deliberate way of trying to get himself back in prison. He had previous convictions for assaulting an emergency worker, non-domestic burglary and theft. He was in breach of a 15-month suspended prison sentence imposed just six days earlier.
Harry Bradford, mitigating, said that Rooney pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and he wanted to be sent back to prison. “He seeks a custodial sentence,” said Mr Bradford.
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It was a “damning indictment” that he saw prison as the most likely place where he could get help. He “actively” wanted the “assurance” of a custodial sentence.
Rooney was on methadone while in custody. He had previously been reliant on crack cocaine, heroin and alcohol, leading to a spiral in his health problems.
Deputy circuit judge Geoffrey Marson KC told Rooney: “You have a terrible record of public order offences and making threats. It’s a source of some sadness that you were committing an offence in order to get sent back to prison.
“You committed this offence no doubt when you were under the influence of alcohol and drugs. I hope that, while you are in custody, you will get some help.
“It’s unfortunate that more help is not available to you elsewhere. You are getting at least some help in prison.”
Rooney was jailed for two years and four months. The prison term included a consecutive one year after part of the suspended sentence was activated.