A drug addict who forced his terrified grandmother to give him £20 a day for drugs left her losing weight and scared to go out. Scott Armstrong, 33, was living with his grandma when he began financially controlling her, demanding cash from her daily to fund his heroin and crack cocaine addiction.
The abuse got gradually worse, to the point that her daughter, Armstrong’s mother, noted that she was losing weight and stopped going out as she wanted to avoid him, Manchester Crown Court heard.
If she didn’t give him the cash he would throw furniture around the house, verbally abuse her and at one stage attacked her and ‘dragged her round like a dog’. The woman said she felt like she was in a ‘living hell’ and was left feeling 'suicidal'.
READ MORE:
Pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to engaging in controlling behaviour and failing to attend court, Armstrong was jailed for 46 weeks and handed a restraining order.
As the judge was making his sentencing remarks, Armstrong, who appeared on videolink from HMP Doncaster, stormed out of the booth and said: “That definitely isn’t going to happen, you’ll see me back in court. That definitely isn’t happening.”
Prosecuting, Helena Williams said Armstrong moved in with his grandmother in November 2020, and would regularly ask for money for drugs. “She gave him £20 a day, everyday, leaving little money for herself,” she said.
During an incident on April 11 2021, she called the police in order to get him to leave, which he did, but returned once officers left. Three days later he asked her for money again, and when she refused saying she didn’t have any, he called her a ‘lying b****’, accused her of not wanting to give him the money and threatened to kill her.
At 11.45am he overheard her calling the police and said: “I can’t believe you called the police on your own grandson.” As the woman called the police again he snatched her phone from her and said: “I’ll make sure you never phone them again.”
When the police arrived he ran out of the house with her phone. He moved out of her house in June.
“On June 19, he walked back into her address and asked for money,” Ms Williams said. “She told him she didn’t have any and he got angry.
“He went into the kitchen, tipped the freezer over and began picking up furniture.”
The woman went outside to ask for help but Armstrong caught up to her, kicked her to the floor and dragged her around the house.
In a statement, Armstrong’s mum said as soon as he moved in, she noticed her mum stopped going out shopping and was losing weight. She was eventually forced to leave and moved in with her daughter.
“The past six months I’ve been in a living hell,” the grandmother said. “I feel constantly under pressure, if I don’t give him money I don’t know what he will do. I feel like it’s only a matter of time before he will cause me pain and it’s making me extremely scared.
“It’s causing me so much distress, I am unable to live my life properly, I am constantly on edge. When he attacked me I remember him dragging me round like a dog and dropping me like a sack of potatoes.”
Armstrong was said to have 95 offences on his record including for violence and criminal damage.
Sophie Kenny, mitigating, said her client's sole intention was to obtain money to buy drugs. “He is thoroughly ashamed of himself and quite rightly, so he should be,” she said.
“He has been street homeless for a considerable part of his adult life, and with that came a chaotic lifestyle. There is a long term heroin and crack cocaine addiction.
“He was offered refuge and he took advantage of her hospitality and kindness and was using the money she gave him for drugs.”
Judge Timothy Smith said Armstrong had been ‘bedevilled’ by drug addiction.
“Your grandmother was one of your few family members who supported you, looked after you and cared for you. She gave you a home when you needed a home.
“Not only were you asking for money from her, which amounts to controlling behaviour, but if you didn’t get it, you would act like a petulant child, throwing things around the house and making threats.”
Armstrong, of no fixed abode, was jailed for 46 weeks and made subject of a restraining order, banning him from contacting his grandmother for eight years.
Read more of today's top stories here
READ NEXT :
