19 January 2024 , 22:41
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A man who threatened to throw acid in the face of a woman after gifting her a Cadbury's Creme Egg containing a £1,000 prize she refused to share has been jailed - again.
Dean Hearne, of no fixed abode, continued a campaign of abuse against the woman when he was released from jail and also threatened to burn down the house of another victim, who allowed him to sleep in her garden, and kill her pet dog.
Christopher Hopkins, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that the 39-year-old was previously handed a restraining order in April last year preventing him from contacting a woman for three years who he had fallen out with after gifting her a Creme Egg and a rose for Valentine's Day.
The defendant became enraged when a £1,000 prize was found in the chocolate egg and the woman refused to share it, so he began to "hound" her and threaten to throw acid in her face. Chillingly, Hearne even left a bottle containing formaldehyde - a highly toxic and flammable chemical - inside her garden shed "as a reminder".
He also turned up at her home in Orford, Warrington, in the early hours and smashed her front window and damaged fence panels. His behaviour led to him being jailed for a year for offences including harassment, criminal damage and assaulting an emergency services worker.
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But, following his release from prison, he was spotted on her street at around 5.30am on September 28, last year, in breach of his restraining order. The sighting was reported by the complainant's daughter - whom he was also banned from contacting, and who looked out of the window to see Hearne outside. He was said to have "acknowledged her" at this stage.
A further incident came on the evening of November 4 at the address of a woman who had "let him sleep in a gazebo in her garden". At around 11.15pm, she heard him "smashing" items via her CCTV system and then she saw him push over a wheelie bin before banging and kicking at her back door.
A furious Hearne shouted: "I will cut you up. I will burn your house down. I will kill your dog." Hearne then stuck his hand through the woman's cat flap, damaging it. As a result, she called her daughter-in-law and "asked her to come around, as she was scared".
She began walking round to her home, but en-route encountered Hearne. He twice shouted "what the f*** are you going to do?" to her before punching her in the face, knocking her glasses off. Hearne then proceeded to the woman's house, where he "burst through the door" of the address where her three children were present. He was said to have been "obviously intoxicated" and yelling: "I'm going to kill you, you stupid b****."
When arrested in the early hours of November 5, he urinated in the back of a police van as he was being transported into custody, reported the Liverpool Echo. Hearne has a total of 31 previous convictions for 76 offences - including inflicting grievous bodily harm, arson, burglary, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, affray, drink driving and theft.
He represented himself in court, and said from the dock: "I need help with alcohol. They're all alcohol-related. That's it really. I'm sorry for the harm and damage I've caused, but I need help with the alcohol." Hearne admitted two counts of harassment, assault, threatening behaviour and two charges of criminal damage. He was locked up for 16 months and handed a new seven-year restraining order, at which he said: "Thank you, see you again."
Sentencing, Recorder Martin Reid KC said: "Your record does not make for encouraging reading. You know all too well that there is no realistic option for me but to impose an immediate custodial sentence. I have considered the background to this offending. You have acknowledged that you need some help."