Hartlepool man jailed at Teesside Crown Court after threatened to kill woman in shocking attack just a day after release from prison

Alan Bates, 42, was let out of jail in October after serving a sentence for assaulting a female friend and possession of an offensive weapon in February.

But within a day he attacked a woman he had been in a volatile relationship with after storming round to her friend’s house while armed with a claw hammer.

He has now been jailed again for four years.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Bates, described as a “big 20-stone bloke”, told the victim to be at home to await his phone call on October 27 this year.

But she was surprised when he walked through the door and stayed the night despite her asking him to leave.

She tried to avoid him the following day and went round to a friend’s house, calling home to see if Bates was still there.

He answered and told her to return home before threatening to assault her. Bates then went round to her friend’s house where he demanded to be let in.

He forced his way in and attacked her. Jenny Haigh, prosecuting, said: “He ran straight at her and started to punch her with both fists to the head.

"He kept saying ‘I’m going to kill you’. She obviously thought he would have killed her if her friends had not been there.”

Bates was armed with a claw hammer which he held aloft but did not use.

He grabbed the victim’s female friend by the throat and punched her partner in the face when they tried to intervene.

The woman was so distressed she had an epileptic seizure when describing the assault to the police.

In an impact statement she said: “I believe Alan will stop at nothing to get at me and will kill me.”

He admitted making a threat to kill, actual bodily harm, two common assaults and criminal damage of a phone.

Stephen Constantine, mitigating, said Bates had “no inkling” of how the woman felt and accepted his behaviour was completely unacceptable.

Mr Constantine said Bates, of Fulthorpe Avenue, Hartlepool, had the hammer for protection but did not use it.

He was sentenced to 48 months jail and an indefinite restraining order.