A violent serial offender who threatened to murder police and knocked a man near-unconscious has been jailed for two years.
Sean Snaize, 34, was on a restraining order at the time of the vicious incidents in which he targeted a man with mental-health problems, York Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Brooke Morrison said the first incident occurred on 27 July when the victim – who was named in court – stopped at traffic lights as he was cycling into York city centre.
He was waiting for the lights to change at the junction of Fulford Road and Hospital Fields Road when he suddenly heard someone shouting.
It was Snaize, who was targeting him because the victim had previously complained about his behaviour towards him.
“The defendant was shouting, ‘I’m going to murder you; I’m going to kill you,’” said Ms Morrison.
The victim got off his bike and flagged down a passing police van. Three police officers approached Snaize who was “waving his arms and shouting”.
An officer grabbed his arm, whereupon Snaize began “flinging his arms around” to try to release her grip. Another officer drew her Taser gun and warned him she would use it if he didn’t calm down as other officers handcuffed him following a struggle.
Snaize was hauled into the police van where he spat at one of the officers and shouted: “I’ll f______ murder the lot of you.”
He was arrested and charged with breaching a restraining order and assaulting a police officer.
A few weeks later, while on court bail, he targeted the same victim who was waiting for a bus on Station Road.
The victim boarded a bus but Snaize, who was shouting abuse, followed him on, punching him to the head “repeatedly, with both hands”.
Snaize got off the bus but then returned, raining more blows on the victim’s head. The victim was taken to hospital after suffering concussion, a cut above his eye and bruising, swelling and grazing to the back of his ear.
Threatened to stab him
Snaize was arrested and charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and a second count of breaching the restraining order. He was bailed to appear before the court on 11 August but failed to turn up.
He was arrested again the following day in Parliament Street and admitted “braying” the victim. When shown pictures of the victim’s injuries, Snaize “laughed and said he’d have done more (given the chance)”.
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“He said that next time he would stab the (victim),” added Ms Morrison.
Snaize, from York but of no fixed address, appeared for sentence via video link on Thursday (8 September) when the court heard he had 29 previous convictions for 51 offences including theft, battery, carrying a knife and racially aggravated threatening behaviour.
Ms Morrison said Snaize had long-standing mental-health problems, exacerbated by drug and alcohol abuse, and was sectioned at a hospital unit in 2008.
He was ejected from the hospital and released back into the community earlier this year due to threatening staff with violence and damaging property but was recalled to custody on the same day after turning up at the hospital “under the influence of drugs”.
He had been violent towards hospital staff and others in the “mental-health community”, including the victim, who had lived at the same facility.
The victim told the court he was terrified of Snaize, was scared of going out on his own and was fearful that he would eventually be killed by his tormentor.
Lily Wildman, mitigating, claimed that Snaize was a paranoid schizophrenic, exacerbated by “long-term substance misuse”.
Judge Simon Hickey told Snaize he was a “danger…to various members of the community, including (the victim)”.
He said although Snaize “clearly” had mental-health issues and “perhaps” paranoid schizophrenia, this had been worsened by drink and drugs.
“My judgement is that it’s time that the public was protected (from you) and (the victim) in particular,” he added.
Snaize, who was gesticulating wildly in the video-link custody booth and had to be muted by the court clerk, will serve half of the two-year sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence.
The judge ordered that the restraining order would continue to protect the victim.
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