A car driver deliberately drove into a group of young people in a mass riot that produced a knife and other weapons, a court heard.
Alec Lavelle then reversed into another car before escaping the scene.
The 22-year-old later went to a nearby house and smashed all the windows downstairs with a hammer while scared children screamed in their beds upstairs.
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Mold Crown Court heard that the incident occurred in Rhyl on the evening of September 20 last year.
Prosecutor Elen Owen said Lavelle arrived in his red Peugeot car in Ffordd Las around 7pm and was involved in a “disruption” with a group of young people. She said words were exchanged between the driver and members of the group on the street before one of the teenagers took out a knife. In response, someone in the defendant’s car presented an item to Lavelle, the exact nature of which is not known.
The court heard Lavelle then got back in his car and climbed the sidewalk before heading straight for the teenagers, scattering them. Some ran into the street, others jumped over a fence into the playing fields. Lavelle crashed into a bike that had been left on the sidewalk and then backed into a nearby Mercedes.
The prosecutor said no statements were received from the youth involved because the police could not locate them and they did not come forward. Despite talking to the driver of the Mercedes, he refused to make a statement to the officers.
Miss Owen said Lavelle went to a house on nearby Kingsley Avenue later that evening, her face covered, and smashed all the windows on the first floor of the property with a hammer. The family’s three young children who lived in the house were sleeping upstairs at the time and were woken up by shattering glass. Blood samples taken from the broken window panes were then assigned to the defendant. Lavelle was arrested and gave officers a “no comment” interview. The total cost of repairing the broken windows was £ 1,116.
Alec William James Lavelle of Marine Road, Abergele, Conwy, had previously pleaded guilty of dangerous driving and property damage when he appeared in the dock for conviction. He has 25 criminal records for 50 crimes.
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Simon Killeen, for Lavelle, said while driving on people on the sidewalk was clearly serious business, the defendant was actually driving slowly. He said it was accepted that his client had “a terrifying record for such a young person,” but the contents of a presentation report indicated that he was interested in working on parole and accepting any help he could offer could.
Judge Nicola Jones said the circumstances of the riot at Ffordd Las were “somewhat unusual”, exchanged words and produced a knife. She said she accepted that the speed associated with the dangerous driving that followed was not high. The judge said Lavelle then left and smashed the windows of a house while the family children upstairs were “screaming and obviously scared”.
The judge gave the defendant a 25% discount on his case for dangerous driving and sentenced him to 12 months in prison and a one-third discount for his case for criminal harm, she sentenced him to one month. Judge Jones said that given the long time Lavelle had already served in jail after being recalled on previous offenses and the delay in the trial, Lavelle would let the two judgments run simultaneously rather than consecutively. The defendant will serve up to half the 12-month sentence before being released. He was also deprived of his driving license for 12 months.
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