Sheffield Crown Court: Man went on wrecking spree and spat at a police officer after brother's tragic death

Sheffield Crown Court recently heard how Harrison Buckley, aged 24, of Pingles Crescent, at Thrybergh, Rotherham, randomly lashed out at six parked cars around Bradstone Road, at Herringthorpe, in Rotherham, and after he was arrested he spat in the face of a police officer.

The judge – Recorder Richard Woolfall – told the hearing on July 28: “All of this was born out of a bottling-up of a number of factors but most of all grief in relation to his brother and the social media posts that were very upsetting triggered by an argument with his girlfriend.”

Prosecuting barrister Katherine White explained that the father of Buckley’s girlfriend called police on May 6 to say the defendant was kicking his vehicle and causing damage to other vehicles.

The damaged vehicles included a Vauxhall Signum, a Ford Mondeo, a Nissan Qashqai, a Volvo S40, a Ford Focus, and a Hyundai Tucson.

One witness saw the defendant kicking her Ford Focus and another vehicle and the wing mirror of her vehicle was damaged, according to Ms White.

Ms White added that other complainants suffered a variety of damage to their vehicles including damaged wing mirrors, dents and a cracked windscreen.

During Buckley’s arrest he spat at a police officer as he was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police vehicle.

Buckley, who has a previous conviction for dangerous driving and driving without insurance, pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency worker and to six counts of causing criminal damage.

The court heard Buckley’s latest offending means he has breached the terms of the suspended prison sentence he received for the driving offences.

Edward Moss, defending, explained Buckley’s brother had died only four weeks before his latest offending and he had found him in a field after his brother had been involved in a road traffic accident.

Recorder Woolfall told Buckley: “You damaged six cars and then when police attended, simply doing their job, you made their difficult job even more difficult and behaved in a disgraceful and crass way when you spat in the police officer’s face.”

However, Recorder Woolfall recognised Buckley is remorseful, that there were unusual circumstances, some compensation has been paid and the defendant has tried to make amends.

He said: "Some four weeks before this your brother was tragically killed. You had got notification he had been thrown from a car in an accident and you were the one that found him.”

Recorder Woolfall added: “Clearly, you had bottled up your grief but matters came to a head because people had been posting unkind things about him on social media and no doubt left you feeling powerless and frustrated.”

He also said: “You turned to alcohol, which is not an excuse but it is an explanation, and then you had an argument with your girlfriend and then you lost all control and behaved in this dreadful way.”

Recorder Woolfall sentenced Buckley to four months of custody suspended for 12 months with a rehabilitation requirement. He also ordered Buckley to pay £300 compensation to the police officer.