'Out-of-control' Leeds drunk jailed for attacking neighbours in their own home
A drunk who was “out of control” on booze and crack cocaine has been locked up for a series of vicious attacks on his neighbours in their own homes.
Andrew Jowett threw a bottle at one man’s head, strangled another with a dressing-gown cord and rained punches down on a woman who asked him to leave her home.
The 42-year-old was jailed at Leeds Crown Court this week after admitting two counts of ABH, one of intentional suffocation and possession of a knife.
The court heard that Jowett, of Tennyson Street, Guiseley, first went to a property on the street on March 17 and was shouting at the woman living there.
He was confronted by her partner who managed to get him out of the property, but Jowett opened a bottle of vodka and poured the contents on the floor and stairs and tried and failed to set fire to it.
Jowett then threw the bottle which struck the man in the head, causing a cut and swelling, prosecutor Louise Pryke said.
Later that day at around 8pm, Jowett went to another property on the same street with another bottle of vodka. He left after speaking with the resident, but returned an hour later and was aggressive, so the man invited him in, offering him a coffee in the hope he would calm down.
But after entering, Jowett began attacking the man and struck him across the face with an unknown object, before punching him multiple times.
The victim began shouting for help and tried to escape but Jowett grabbed the cord from the dressing gown he was wearing which became wrapped around the man’s neck.
He managed to reach the garden but was followed by Jowett who threw more punches at him, before being able to raise the alarm with a neighbour.
Then five days later he went to woman’s home on Raywood Close in Yeadon with a crate of beer.
When the woman asked him to leave and tried to push him out of the property, he threw the beer on the floor and began punching her to the face.
He made threats to burn down her house with her inside. A neighbour came to her rescue after hearing the commotion and the police were called.
Jowett was arrested the next day and he confessed having a knife up his sleeve. During his police interview he said he could not recall anything of the incidents, and that his drinking had got “out of control” and that he was also taking drugs.
He appeared in court via video link from HMP Leeds, where he was being held on remand. He has eight previous convictions for 22 offences.
Mitigating, Tom Doyle said the “key issue was alcohol” but said Jowett was capable of living a law-abiding life, having kept out of trouble between 2007 and 2016.
He said that Jowett’s life had spiralled out of control from 2016 and he even tried to take his own life by driving off a bridge onto a motorway below, but failed in his his bid and was left seriously injured.
Mr Doyle added that he “carries a lot of trauma” and self medicates with alcohol and drugs.
Judge Andrew Stubbs KC described them as “very unpleasant offences” and told Jowett: “Your drinking and drug taking was completely out of control and as a result, so were you.
“However unfortunate your life has been, there comes a time when you can’t play that card you have played before. It can’t be trotted out everytime you are in trouble to reduce your sentence.”
He jailed him for 28 months.