FORREST: JUNK MAIL RAGE LANDS MAN IN JAIL

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19 August 2011

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A thug who threatened a terrified postman with a piece of wood and a snooker ball in a sock because too much junk mail was being delivered to his house was jailed for six months today (Fri),

David Forrest, 35, drunkenly attacked Sean Fanus twice with make-shift weapons after becoming enraged about the amount of rubbish coming through his letter box.

Forrest tracked down Mr Fanus on his round and threw the letters in the postman’s face before threatening him, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

Jonathan Foy, prosecuting, said the incident was sparked when Mr Fanus delivered mail to  Forrest’s home in Reighton Road, Clapton, east London, on the morning of May 23 this year.

‘Having posted some mail through this defendant’s letterbox, it was a little later on, he was accosted by Mr Forrest who appeared angry and threatening,’ he said.

‘The postman was unable to understand initially what Mr Forrest as saying and asked him to calm down.

‘At that stage, the defendant threw his letters at Mr Fanus, went to hit him and then brandished a plank of wood,some three foot long.’

Forrest then ‘adopted a boxing pose’ while shouting at the postie, before turning round and returning inside his house.

However he appeared again and ran towards Mr Fanus with a snooked ball inside a sock.

‘The postman described how he was chased around a vehicle,’ added the prosecutor.

Police called to the scene found Forrest ‘heavily drunk and belligerent’ inside his home.

They recovered a black snooker ball and a sock and a three-foot plant of wood from the street outside.

Forrest admitted two counts of possessing an offensive weapon. A further charge of assault by beating was left to lie on file.

Jailing him for six months Judge John Lafferty said: ‘People are often infuriated, and possibly understandably, about the amount of junk mail that comes through the door, but that’s not the responsibility of the postmen who deliver it.

‘I accept that these offence were committed while you were very drunk, but that is an aggravating, not a mitigating, factor.’

Forrest, of of Albany Road, Manor Park, east London, was handed six month prison sentences for each charge, to run concurrently.

The judge also ordered that the plank of wood, snooker ball and sock should be forfeited and destroyed.

Ends.