Colchester: Swift jail return after family row

8:01am Wednesday 14th May 2008

A man was ordered back to jail after he smashed a window on the day he came out of prison.

Jamie Thomas, of no fixed address, admitted recklessly breaking a double-glazed window at his parents' home on May 8, after he was released from serving a previous sentence.

Colchester Magistrates Court heard yesterday the 31-year-old turned up at his parents' Colchester council house that day and argued on the doorstep with his father, Raymond, about money.

When his father went upstairs, he heard the downstairs window smash and his son crying for help.

Anna Perera, mitigating, said Thomas had been brought to the house by police after he was attacked in Castle Park, Colchester, earlier that day but his father had refused to let him in.

She said he had not intended to break the window, but had fallen through as he was suffering from concussion.

She said Thomas lost three pints of blood and suffered a serious wound to his arm from the broken window, yet his father remained inside the house.

"It is a tragic situation - a breakdown of the relationship between father and son."

He was sentenced to 59 days in prison plus an extra 50 days to run concurrently for reoffending after his release.

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