Sunderland banned drug driver jailed for failing to comply with court order after 'very serious knife attack'

Jordan Ramsey, 28, of Hylton Road, Sunderland, was hospitalised for two weeks in August 2018, after falling victim to the assault, a court heard.

But he then moved home, found a new girlfriend and got on with his life, “wilfully” disregarding the terms of a community order imposed two months earlier, a judge said at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court.

Ramsey, who admitted breaching the order, looked visibly shocked in the dock when District Judge Sarah Griffiths announced his imprisonment.

She told him the 12-month order, imposed for driving while unfit through drugs, driving while disqualified and possession of an air rifle within five years of a custodial sentence, had been “high level”.

Handed out by the same court in June 2018, it ordered him to do 200 hours of unpaid work, 20 days’ rehabilitation work with the Probation Service and undertake the Thinking Skills programme.

District Judge Griffiths said: “I accept that you had struggles as a result of that incident for a period of time.

“That said, I’m told that during these two years you moved on with your life.

“There’s absolutely no reason therefore why you’ve not sought to re-establish contact with the Probation Service. You have simply ignored this order.

“This has become a wilful and persistent non-compliance with that community order. You should have done something about this, but you have not.”

The court heard Ramsey attended two induction appointments with the Probation Service in August 2018 but was attacked two days after the last and then slid off the radar.

Jason Smith, defending, said: “He fell victim to a very serious knife attack that led to him being in hospital.

“He suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result, and the perpetrators were subject to a police investigation.

“As a consequence, he fell very ill with his mental health. He moved to get away from the area.

“He put the order out of his mind and accepts that he shouldn’t have. He is sorry and apologises profusely.”

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