THIS week a killer who once kicked a dad to death in a row over money was back in court for an attack on a 70-year-old woman and for 'cutting grass with a pair of a scissors' in front of a police officer.

Karl Hardwick, who has a conviction for manslaughter, appeared at Worcester Crown Court on Friday over videolink from HMP Hewell for a series of ‘strange’ and violent incidents in Worcester, including cutting grass with a pair of scissors in Chedworth Drive, Warndon.

The 37-year-old of no fixed abode was due to be sentenced for assault occasioning actual bodily harm at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester on January 18 this year and for a string of offences in April this year.

The April offences include battery against a 70-year-old woman, ABH against another woman, using violence to enter premises (the woman’s flat) and criminal damage.

At the same hearing he admitted having an article with a blade or point on September 22 last year – a pair of scissors - in Chedworth Drive, Warndon, Worcester.

Simon Burch, prosecuting, said: “It’s clear there’s some peculiar features of the offence, not least the bladed article which are scissors used by the defendant to cut grass in the presence of the officer.”

We have previously reported how the former drug addict, then 17, kicked father-of-four Thomas O’Brien to death following a row over money outside St Paul’s Hostel after knocking out some of the victim’s teeth just two days before.

He was sentenced to eight years' youth custody in 2000 after admitting being one of two teenagers who killed the Kidderminster man.

Hardwick was sentenced to 22 weeks in prison at Worcester Magistrates Court last January after making threats which breached his Criminal Behaviour Order and a suspended sentence he was given in September 2017 for assaulting police constable Deborah Manson in the execution of her duty.

Judge Nicholas Cole said of the new charges: “These are offences which, taken together, cross the custody threshold. The defendant has a significant antecedent history including an offence of manslaughter when he was aged 17.

Sam Lamsdale, defending, said her client had been ‘anxious to be sentenced’ but she had now taken further instructions that his mental health had deteriorated again while in custody.

She applied to adjourn the case for a further psychiatric report to see whether the doctor recommends a section 37 or 41 hospital order and whether there may be a bed available at a clinic.

In the meantime the defendant was remanded in custody.

Meanwhile, Daniel Freeman-Hollins was convicted at Worcester Crown Court of causing death by careless driving and causing that death while unlicensed and uninsured.

The 20-year-old veered into the car park of the Robin Hood pub in Gloucester Road, Castlemorton, at 7.30pm on Friday, May 24, last year, killing Raymond Johnstone.

The 72-year-old grandfather was about to get into his Land Rover Freelander when he was struck, suffering multiple and fatal injuries.

Freeman-Hollins of Swinyard Road, Malvern, told the jury he was not speeding as he swerved to avoid the victim’s daughter-in-law, Ruth Johnstone, who was pulling out of the pub car park, turning right towards Welland.

Harpreet Sandhu, prosecuting, said "he appears to blame Mrs Johnstone for setting in train the events which led to Mr Johnstone's death".

But the jury found the defendant had been speeding on the 50mph road in a car he had owned for just a week, driving it without a valid licence or insurance.

He later lied to police that he had never driven the car before that day.

He would have had 118.4 metres to see Ruth Johnstone’s Volkswagen Passat, "sufficient room to react to her presence" and "sufficient time to stop even if he had been driving at 74mph".

Mrs Johnstone, her view obscured by the Kia Sportage, was careful pulling out of the car park, making sure her radio was off and her window down as she edged out in a single manoeuvre.

She saw the defendant's Suzuki Liana straddling the white lines and thought he would crash head-on into her.

The defendant, whose girlfriend was with him in the car, first struck the parked Kia Sportage near the pub entrance before hurtling into Mr Johnstone’s Freelander, forcing it into a brick and timber building.

Mr Johnstone was dragged into the building which collapsed on top of him.

The defendant only suffered minor injuries as his car was propelled back into the middle of Gloucester Road.

The jury took an hour and 10 minutes to convict the defendant unanimously on all three counts.

Sentencing was adjourned until Friday, November 13, to allow a pre-sentence report and psychiatric report to be prepared.

Freeman-Hollins could be seen in the waiting area sobbing with his head in his hands after the verdicts were announced.

And finally, a former Worcester teacher has been jailed for raping a vulnerable woman after confessing to the ‘terrible act’ in a string of text messages to his victim.

Michael Leydon, 61, previously of Diglis, Worcester, but now of Worthing, showed no emotion as he was sentenced to six years and six months in prison at Worcester Crown Court by Judge James Burbidge QC on Friday.

The judge told the former Nunnery Wood High School teacher: “In a single moment you lost leave of your senses.”

The history teacher’s career came to an end in 2017 when he retired to contest the allegations.

But a jury decided by majority verdict that he carried out the rape in 2014, holding the woman down by the shoulders and leaving bruises.

Judge Burbidge said of the rape: “She tried to push you away and said ‘no’ to you. It’s difficult to comprehend why you did that and I do not seek to do that.”

The prosecution case was that Leydon’s texts to the victim referred to the rape, including one in which he says his actions were ‘totally disgusting’ and ‘the result of drink tablets, and stress’.

In another message he wrote: “I’m sorry for what I did to you – you know I will never do it again.”

In one text he wrote: “What I did to you was my fault, albeit I did it on a cocktail of alcohol, sexual frustration and depression.”

In a victim impact statement, the woman, described by the judge as ‘troubled’, said she had suffered PTSD and had lost her confidence and self-worth in the wake of the rape.

She also said she suffered when the trial had to be adjourned in March due to Covid-19. “I thought it was never going to end,” she said.

The judge said the defendant’s behaviour during the rape was ‘quite different to how you conducted yourself throughout your life’.

He read 14 references supplied by his wife, children and former colleagues and the judge described him as a man of previous ‘exemplary good character’.

Judge Burbidge said: “It’s possible that night you consumed alcohol. That cannot explain the nature of the act let alone excuse it.”

He said of the texts he sent to his victim: “They appear to be an expression of regret and also you trying to comprehend why you did what you did because it was beyond comprehension.”

Referring to the victim, who had made attempts on her own life and suffered mental health problems, he said: “She was particularly vulnerable.”

However, he said: “You are not a controlling or predatory man.”

The judge expressed the hope that the victim could move on with her life in what had been the first jury trial at Worcester Crown Court since lockdown was imposed in March.