A HOMELESS alcoholic has been banned from parts of Worcester after threatening to burn down a busy city centre store.
Terry Taylor was found guilty at Worcester Magistrates Court of being threatening and abusive to staff at Primark in Crowngate shopping centre on February 28, before saying he was going to steal and bomb and burn the shop down.
The 49-year-old pleaded not guilty to the offence, which was a breach of an interim CRASBO, but admitted another breach when he became argumentative and volatile with staff at Worcester Food Bank two days before.
The court jailed him for a total of eight weeks, but due to time served on remand he was released, and granted a full CRASBO which will last for two years.
It bans Taylor, of no fixed address, from consuming alcohol or being in possession of an open vessel containing alcohol in any place being a designated place where consumption is prohibited by law; from remaining on any premises if asked to leave by a member of staff or other person having authority to do so; from behaving in any manner that causes or is likely to cause any person, not of the same household as himself, alarm, harassment or distress; and from spitting in a public place.
Taylor is also banned from entering the Walk-In Medical Centre, Farrier Street, the Hive, Sawmill Walk, and its grounds; St George’s Church, Sansome Place, and its grounds, Lidl, Newtown Road, the Job Centre, Sansome Street, and McDonalds, The Foregate.
The magistrates were told Taylor became well known to police for being frequently drunk and disorderly when he moved to the city last May.
He was already subject to three ASBOS, one issued by Birmingham magistrates in April 2013 following an application by British Transport Police, and two by Gloucester magistrates in 2010 and 2011.
In the past year West Mercia Police had dealt with a number of incidents relating to drunkenness, threatening, intimidating and aggressive behaviour, general nuisance and urinating in public.
The court was told while the exclusion area incorporated those areas where Taylor had committed anti social behaviour as well as certain hot spots where alcohol-related behaviour and street drinking were an issue, it excluded premises used by support agencies providing services for alcoholics and homeless people to enable Taylor to seek help.
It did not prohibit Taylor from being drunk in a public place, as this would be impossible for him to comply with. However the application aimed to stop him acting in a disorderly manner while drunk.
It also required him to leave premises when asked to do so, as a number of times he has refused to comply with requests to move on.
Sergeant Carl Jones of the Cathedral Safer Neighbourhood Team, which covers the city centre, said: “Terry Taylor used to live in Gloucester and Birmingham. He was a nuisance in both of those cities and has related CRASBOs there.
“Since he came to Worcester he has blighted Worcester city centre and St John’s with his drunken, threatening and offensive behaviour.
“Considerable time, money and effort has gone into trying to help him. While we are not unsympathetic to his problems, Worcester is a lovely place in which to live, work and visit, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that individuals like him do not spoil it for everyone else.
“I am pleased with this Order which will go some way towards protecting the people of Worcester from Taylor’s awful behaviour. By releasing his photograph and details about his CRASBO, we hope people will come forward if they see him flouting it, so appropriate action can be taken.”
If Taylor breaches the CRASBO, he can be jailed for up to five years.
