A MILDENHALL man with "ingrained immaturity" dragged another man through his car window and threatened him with a metal pole, a court has heard.
When interviewed by police, Kristen Langford, 20, said the reason he had armed himself was: "because that's what gangs do in London".
On Thursday Langford, of Brick Kiln Road, Mildenhall, appeared at Ipswich Crown Court to be sentenced after plead
ing guilty at an earlier hearing to a charge of assault causing actual bodily harm and another of causing criminal damage.
Duncan O'Donnell, prosecuting, said that on October 9 last year Langford had met another man in Brick Kiln Road.
Michael Jones, had been owed £30 by Langford for motorcycle parts and a conversation about that debt took place, he said.
Mr Jones had got back into his parked car and was sitting with two passengers when Langford briefly left the scene and then returned carrying a metal pole.
According to one of the passengers, he dragged Mr Jones out of the vehicle through the open driver's door window, while punching him at least twice in the face, said Mr O'Donnell.
A struggle then broke out during which Mr Jones was able to wrest the metal pole away from Langford – but not before £150 damage had been caused to the car. Langford then ran from the scene.
Mr O'Donnell said that Mr Jones suffered swelling and a cut to his left eye, a cut lip and a chipped tooth.
When police arrived they were handed the metal pole and Langford was arrested a short time afterwards.
During interview, Langford told officers that an argument had broken out with Mr Jones and he had gone to fetch the metal pole to threaten him, although it was not used to assault him.
The court heard that Langford had previous convictions, including one for a public order offence at a shop in Mildenhall.
Ian James, mitigating, said that Langford had 'ingrained immaturity' and while in the past efforts had been made to address this, they had not been a success.
He said Langford, who had been 'disarmingly frank' with police about what he had done, was in need of help to tackle his problems.
Langford had been unemployed for two years after being laid off and found it difficult to motivate himself to find fresh employment, said Mr James. After a number of rejections and being told he was not suitable, Langford had given up looking.
He was not claiming any state benefits and was being supported by his mother, he said.
Sentencing Langford, Judge John Devaux said: "This is a rather depressing case." Langford was ordered to remain under probation service supervision for the next 18 months and complete 80 hours of unpaid community work.
Judge Devaux warned him that if he failed to do the unpaid work, he would be returned to court and was likely to face a custodial sentence.
Langford was also told he must take part in a special programme designed to tackle the behaviour of offenders.
