An 'abusive' man has been jailed after his drunken acts of harassment forced a local Revered to resign. A court heard yesterday (March 30) how John Wild, 50, from Wotton-under-Edge, targeted people as a result of "alcohol-fuelled outrage," including a Reverend, a family, and one of his own relatives.
Wild, of Beaumont Row, was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison at Cheltenham Magistrates Court having pleaded guilty to three counts of harassment without violence, two counts of criminal damage to property and one count of using threatening/abusive/insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear or provoke unlawful violence. The judge heard how all of Wild's offending, which took place over a number of months, was centred around drinking alcohol.
As well as harassment, a court heard how Wild damaged doors to people's homes on two occasions in February this year, and days later became verbally abusive to a member of the public. On top of his prison sentence, Wild has been handed a three-year Criminal Behaviour Order, which prevents him from going within 50 metres of a school in Wotton-under-Edge.
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It also prevents him from being in a public place with an open container of alcohol in the area, going within 50 metres of a property in Coombe, Wotton, and entering the Co-op store in Long St. Wild has also been banned from three other locations in the town.
Sergeant Garrett Gloyn from the Stroud Neighbourhood Policing Team said: “In recent months John Wild has misused alcohol regularly and his behaviour towards residents of Wotton and visitors to the town when drunk is awful.
"He has frequently been abusive and threatening to people without provocation and many of his victims are women.
"He has repeatedly been offered, but declined, help for his alcoholism and I hope that this sentence, the Criminal Behaviour Order and the Civil Injunction that we secured in February results in a drastic improvement in his behaviour upon release."
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