A drunk man smashed up betting shops before threatening to shoot police officers across the road from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
Richard Higginson was tasered by police after a stand off outside Eaton Road police station, close to the hospital, earlier this year. He repeatedly told officers he might shoot someone, despite having no gun, shortly after smashing TV screens and betting machines in Betfred and William Hill shops nearby.
Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday that Higginson, of Widnes, caused more than £20,000 of damage during his rampage across Knotty Ash. Having struggled with gambling in the past, he had managed to control his addiction but then relapsed and lost more than a thousand pounds at a bookmakers.
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This, coupled with the fallout of the end of a recent relationship, saw him start drinking heavily on the morning of February 18. Derek Jones, prosecuting, said Higginson then went to the Betfred on Dovecot Avenue shortly before 3pm.
Mr Jones said: “The defendant came into the store, where the manager recognised him as a customer. “He then said ‘it’s nothing personal but I’m going to smash the machines up’.
“He was carrying a holdall bag and then pulled out of the bag a tyre iron. “He then proceeded to smash up the betting machines inside the store, causing significant damage.”
The manager of the shop shouted at him to leave, at which point Higginson hit the protective screen separating the two and ran out the shop towards a nearby William Hill. There, he chatted briefly to the worker behind the till before telling her to “go into the back and lock yourself in” before using the tyre iron to smash eight TV screens and four gambling machines.
The total damaged caused to the shop was more than £12,000. Higginson then walked to another Betfred on Prescot Road and carried out a third attack, this time causing a further £5,000 in damage.
He finally ended up outside Eaton Road police station, a short walk away, and began to break the ground floor windows while waiting for officers to come out. Mr Jones said: “He shouted ‘stay there, stay there, I’ve got a gun, I will shoot you’.
“There was a standoff, the defendant was standing there with his hand in the bag for several minutes. “Eventually, one of the officers took his Taser out and Tasered the defendant.
“He was taken to hospital to check he was OK and officers had by then established that he had no gun.” Mr Jones said Higginson had several previous convictions, including for assault in 2011, but had not recently offended.
Charles Lander, defending, said Higginson’s actions were the culmination of a range of factors in his life and he deeply regretted them. He said: “The defendant wishes me to apologise on his behalf, particularly to the staff of the shops, the police officers and members of the public who had to witness his behaviour.”
Mr Lander said that having managed his gambling addiction for some time, the 49 year old lost £1,000 in the space of a day shortly before the attack. A relationship he had been in had also recently ended, and seeing a picture of his ex partner with someone else caused his emotional state to deteriorate further.
He said: “It is that combination, your honour, of the gambling addiction and seeing that photo that drove him to drink heavily that morning.” Judge Stuart Driver QC said Higginson was clearly in a precarious mental state when he carried out the smash attacks and the later incident at the police station and said this would reduce the sentence he passed.
However, he added: “The overall picture is serious and, in my judgement, the public would be surprised if immediate imprisonment did not result from a case with such a large number of victims and such a large amount of damage caused.” Higginson, of Coronation Drive, Widnes, was jailed for 12 months after pleading guilty to criminal damage and affray.
