Man faces jail after 'axe-attack' joke

A man is facing jail after he tried to scare teenagers away by chasing his ketchup-smeared fiancée down a moonlit farm track whilst wielding an axe. John Powell, 28, admitted two charges of possessing an axe in a public place and using behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress on October 20 2010, when he appeared at South Lakeland Magistrates Court. His case was adjourned pending reports, but he was warned he may receive a custodial sentence. He hatched the plan with Lucy Walton, 27, to spook the men parked in a lay-by on Cleabarrows Lane, Windermere.

She banged on the youngsters car window with a terrified look on her face screaming: "Let me in, let me in." One of the teenagers in the car, Simon Jackson, 19, told magistrates the incident had left him and his friends petrified. "We were parked in the lay-by playing cards when we saw a woman come from down the lane," said Mr Jackson. "She got to the car and was asking us to help her saying: Let me in, let me in. She was banging on the window in terror.



"Not long after he came with an axe and was tapping on the window. Then we were scared because we thought he was going to smash through the window." He said the event had left them absolutely terrified and they drove back down the lane to Crook Road and called the police. The court was told the couple were later pulled over by officers in their car near to Windermere Golf Club. Police cautioned Miss Walton and arrested Mr Powell, who works for Hawkshead Brewery. Weeping as she gave evidence to the court, Miss Walton said the spoof attack had been her idea and a split-second decision.

She said they had wanted to scare the men who she believed regularly parked in the lay-by next to their farmland. "We've had problems with youths on the lane. We'd seen that car in the past and called police but thought this time we'd scare them ourselves," she said. "There's litter and my horse had recently been injured because of people driving across the fields. I waved to them and I was laughing, I don't understand how they didn't realise it was a joke." Presiding magistrate Mary Goldie adjourned the case for pre-sentence reports and said custody was an option.