Drunken customer attacked Sheffield Post Office worker when she refused to serve himÂ

John Broomhead's spate of offending began shortly after 3.30pm on August 3 this year, when he became agitated while waiting in the queue at the Post Office in the Sheffield City Centre branch of Wilko. 

'He demanded to be served and told the shop assistants to open the till. He became angry and shouted: '˜I'm going to bang you out, I'm going to stab you up',' Eddison Flint, prosecuting, told Sheffield Crown Court.  

The shop manager and a security guard arrived on the shop floor and ordered Broomhead, 56, to leave, to which he replied: 'I've seen both of your faces now, I'm going to come back and knife you.'

 

He exited the shop but returned around 30 minutes later, and was soon spotted by a member of staff who had been present during the earlier altercation.

Mr Flint said: 'She told the defendant, who smelt of alcohol, she wouldn't serve him and told other members of staff not to serve him. He said: '˜You will be serving me'.

'The woman walked away, he pursued her and punched her in the back of the head. He punched her twice to the left arm and kicked her to the back of the knee.'

The courageous woman tackled Broomhead, of Burngreave Road, Burngreave to the ground. A number of her colleagues rushed to her aid and attempted to restrain the defendant but he managed to wriggle free and escape. 

Police used CCTV to trace the defendant, and arrested him in the city centre a short time later. 

 

 

The court heard how Broomhead, who has 25 convictions for 56 offences, was the subject of a suspended sentence order for an charge of wounding when he committed the Wilko assault. 

Broomhead pleaded guilty to charges of common assault and using threatening words likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress at an earlier hearing. 

Defending, Richard Sheldon, told the court that Broomhead suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and has a range of complex needs. 

 

 

He said: 'All of this for a loss of temper...it was an overreaction because of his particular and vulnerable circumstances, but he is full of remorse.'

Recorder Gurdial Singh told the defendant: 'I'm faced with a hard decision between sending you to prison today, and imposing what might be seen as a light sentence.

'To help you get the help you need, which might, in fact be the best way of protecting the public, I'm not going to send you to prison today.'

Recorder Singh sentenced Broomhead to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years, for the breach of his suspended sentence order. For this latest set of offences Recorder Singh made Broomhead the subject of a community order, a condition of which is the completion of 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days.