AN ARMED mob attack on a Rugby woman’s front door has earned a man an eight month suspended prison sentence.
In April last year, Patrick Hannifin, 27, of Grosvenor Road, Rugby, brought a group of men armed with weapons – including a machete, a cleaver, two hammers, a pick head and a spade – to a mother-of-three’s house because her partner owed him money.
But the gang retreated and dropped their weapons when they realised the only people home were the resident’s father, his brother and their friend – who knew about the situation and had arranged for her to leave the house.
An hour after the incident, Hannifin was stopped in his van and arrested.
He gave ‘no comment’ responses when he was interviewed, but his fingerprints were found on the machete left at the scene.
Hannifin was originally charged with violent disorder, but on the day of his trial his plea of guilty to an alternative offence of affray was accepted.
He was sentenced to eight months in prison suspended for two years, with supervision for two years, by a judge at Warwick Crown Court.
