A SEX offender says his drunken dispute with neighbours started when a man slept with his partner and after he was 'jumped' and 'beaten up' in the street.
Sam Peters, who once grabbed a police officer by the buttocks during a sex assault, admitted a catalogue of crimes following a 'neighbour dispute' with people who had been his friends.
The roofer and father-of-three admitted his antisocial actions, which included scratching a car, sending threatening Facebook messages and letting his dog menace residents - and at least one cat - in Kempsey.
The 30-year-old, who had been drinking at the time of the offences, will now be fitted with an abstinence tag that monitors his alcohol intake.
"It senses alcohol in your sweat" said Richard Poppleton, the chairman of the bench at Worcester Magistrates Court.
As previously reported, Peters of Anglia Crescent, Kempsey, near Worcester appeared before city magistrates on Monday having already pleaded guilty to criminal damage to a Kia Rio belonging to Dale Matthews on September 23 this year and sending a Facebook message which conveyed a threat to Anthony Collins on June 26 this year.
Peters further admitted using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour to Claire Smith on September 23 and being the owner/person in charge of a dog that was dangerously out of control, again on September 23.
Peters has a string of previous convictions, including a sexual assault when he grabbed a female police officer's bottom in Lowesmoor in Worcester in 2010 when he was 19.
Representing himself, Peters said neighbours 'jumped me and beat me up on the floor' which is what caused him to send the threatening messages on Facebook.
Speaking on Monday, he said that one neighbour came at him 'with a piece of wood' and that 'four of them jumped me and started filling me in and I got arrested for that'.
The defendant also told the bench a neighbour had 'slept with my partner' and that another neighbour had 'put a knife through my kid's football'. "To get myself removed from the drama, I think it's best we move," he said.
He explained that his dog, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, had never harmed his children. Peters added: "My dog would not hurt a fly. They're trying to cause me trouble. He has never done anything wrong."
He said of causing damage to a neighbour's car by scratching the bonnet with an 'unknown object': "That was a foolish, stupid, immature mistake. I shouldn't have done it."
Peters added: "It was anger building up. As soon as I have been arrested for it I haven't made contact with any of the witnesses. I wouldn't like it if somebody damaged my car. In my late teens and early 20s I was a bit of a criminal. I caused a lot of trouble. I went to prison and was let out in 2015. I have changed my life."
Explaining that he was now a roofer, he told magistrates: "I'm on the verge of trying to open my own business."
He told magistrates this was 'one mistake after six years'. "My early days is getting thrown back in my face. I work seven days a week sometimes. It's all been forgotten - everything good I have done in the six years since I come out out of prison."
Peters said of his neighbours: "They have done bad to me but I haven't reported it. Maybe I should have."
He added: "This is a stupid mistake. I shouldn't be doing this, I know that. It's anger built up with someone sleeping with my partner."
For three of the offences Peters was handed a 36 month community order to include the Resolve programme (26 sessions), 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days and an alcohol abstinence monitoring requirement for 90 days.
For having a dog that was dangerously out of control he was handed a conditional discharge for two years which included a condition that the dog must be kept on a lead outside the house. Magistrates ordered Peters to pay £500 in compensation for the damage to the car.
The bench also ordered him to pay £135 costs.
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