A man has been jailed after failing to take a second chance given when he was caught dancing through Liverpool city centre with his genitals out.
Ovidiu Sirbu was directed towards a rehabilitation programme after exposing himself in front of families while playing a tambourine on Church Street. But his life instead spiralled out of control, leading to further crimes including a terrifying attack on his then partner.
Sirbu was handed a community order following his shameful exploits on August 9, 2020. CCTV captured him shaking a tambourine in front of a drum band with his zipper undone and privates on show.
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He was challenged by a passing woman and twice fled a police community support officer - who asked why he was exposing himself. Sirbu replied: "Children like."
In October 2020, Judge Anil Murray handed Sirbu a three-year community order, with a 30-day Rehabilitation Activity Requirement and warned him: "You must comply with this order and take it seriously."
Suzanne Payne, prosecuting, today told Liverpool Crown Court the 34-year-old was back in trouble the following January, however. He was in Brighton on the night of January 23, 2021 when police were called to an accommodation block following reports a man was trying to get inside.
Ms Payne said: “On arrival, officers found Mr Sirbu outside. He was highly intoxicated. He refused to give officers his details and the officer asked Mr Sirbu, or told him, to leave the area. However, he did not, instead walking to another front door and banging on it.”
Sirbu was arrested and, when he was being driven to a custody suite, started to bang his head on the wall of the police vehicle. The officers with him intervened but the court heard Sirbu kicked one of them in the leg and tried to “snort” blood towards his feet - leading to a spit hood being placed upon him.
Sirbu admitted assault of an emergency worker in connection with that incident. Ms Payne then detailed another incident, back in Liverpool, last May.
The court was told his then partner had travelled to Brighton to see Mr Sirbu but accidentally returned home with his mobile phone. When he arrived to retrieve it, she allowed him to stay at her home on the basis "he did not consume any alcohol due to problems she had encountered previously when he had been drunk".
Ms Payne said: "She went to work, leaving the defendant in her home. On her return she said she sensed something was wrong, not least because the defendant was drunk.
"As she prepared food for the couple the defendant asked her ‘What do you think happened to me today?’ As he said this he was poking her on the arm. He asked again ‘What has happened to me?’
"When the victim told Mr Sirbu that she did not know, he became angry at her. He continued poking her on the arm with his finger, telling her ‘You never know what is happening to me, you don’t love me, you just want my money and my d***’."
She asked him to stop shouting, with Ms Payne explaining: "He did stop shouting at her, then asked her for a hug. She told him she did not want a hug as she was scared of him and this was because he had punched and slapped her in the past.
"She described how the defendant clenched his fists and at that moment she believed he was going to punch her, the defendant saying ‘OK, yes, I promised I wasn’t going to hit you’.
"At this he grabbed hold of both the victim's arms and threw her against a wall, causing her glasses to break, cutting her left eye slightly. She ran into her bedroom to get her mobile phone to call for help."
Sirbu caught her and took her phone before calming down and apologising - only to then grab her again.
Ms Payne said: "The defendant came towards her again, taking hold of her arm and pulling her towards him. She said, at this point, he was holding a large kitchen knife. His arm was raised above his head and he said to her ‘I see you with more blood’. She was scared he was going to stab her and took hold of his forearm. The defendant had hold of the knife by the handle and blade and hit himself."
Sirbu then dropped the knife, his victim fled to the bathroom and managed to send a message to her son, asking him to send police to her home. When he tried to get into the bathroom she told him police had been called, to which he said: "Big mistake."
She held him off and, after the flat went quiet, emerged to find he had smashed her TV, plates and glasses, left blood on the walls and taken her bank cards, £300, mobile phone and keys. Sirbu admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm, criminal damage and theft in relation to that incident.
In December, he was stopped by police after being seen on CCTV trying to get into the Piccolino restaurant on Cook Street in Liverpool city centre, where the court heard he had once worked.
He was arrested and searched, leading to a ‘lock knife’ being found in his possession. As a result, he admitted possession of a bladed article.
Sirbu, formerly of Walton and most recently of Rugby Place in Brighton, appeared in court to be sentenced over each of these matters - and over his failure to comply with the community order handed to him in October 2020.
Andrew McInnes, defending, said his client had been of previous good character before that Church Street incident and initially complied with the order that was handed to him. He said Sirbu had since struggled with homelessness, adding: “He accepts that alcohol is a problem.”
Mr McInnes said: “There is one theme of alcohol running through the cases. Another theme is that he also tries to work and is industrious.”
Judge David Hale told Sirbu: “You have got to learn not to use alcohol as you have in the past.”
Referring first to that Church Street exposure, he said: “The judge on that occasion tried to help you by making a community order but you couldn’t cope with that and you breached it.”
He described Sirbu’s attack on his partner as a “frightening incident for her”, and concluded: “Behind all three of these occasions is drink and because you were drunk you behaved in this terrible way.” He jailed Sirbu for a total of two years and seven months.
