A TRIAL of a man who is charged with threatening a family with a makeshift weapon in Greenstead has been delayed... for nearly a year.

Bradley Wood, 30, appeared in Ipswich Crown Court on Wednesday to stand trial on three charges of threatening a person with an offensive weapon in a private place, one charge of affray, and one charge of actual bodily harm.

The charges are all denied by Wood.

The accusations relate to an incident in Honeysuckle Close, Colchester, in October last year when the defendant is alleged to have entered his neighbour’s flat and threatened him, his partner, and his stepdaughter with a knife.

The trial was opened by the prosecution on Wednesday afternoon, and the hearing had been due to continue on Thursday, but the case had to be adjourned after a juror was forced to withdraw due to work commitments.

Due to a major backlog in the court system, however, His Honour David Pugh was forced to re-list the case in nearly a year’s time.

A new date has been set for the week beginning November 25 of next year, at which point a new jury will be sworn in and the case will be re-opened.