Halloween fright mask attacker jailed

Brett Dempster had been drinking before the attack

A man who wore a Halloween fright mask while brandishing a metal bar and making threats to kill has been jailed for two years.

Brett Dempster, 43, let himself into a house in Northside, Workington, at about 23:00 on 13 May last year.

He shouted to the householder "I'm going to kill you", Carlisle Crown Court heard.

Recorder Kate Bex KC told Dempster it had been “terrifying” for the victim.

Recorder Bex said the man "was sufficiently afraid during the incident to flee his house".

The incident "had a significant effect on him thereafter”, she added.

The court heard Dempster, of Station Road, Workington, was challenged by one of two other men in the house at the time.

He took off his mask but remained aggressive while holding a metal bar, the court heard.

“He was waving this bar around. He was threatening to fight,” prosecutor Steven Ball said.

'Burn your house'

After the householder fled and Dempster left, he later came back to the house after realising he had left his jacket.

On being refused entry he smashed several windows, shouting “I’m going to come back and burn your house”, before throwing the metal bar through a window.

His DNA was later found on both the mask and bar.

Dempster's defence lawyer, Megan Cox, said he had been mourning the death of his 22-year-old daughter at the time and had been drinking.

She said her client was “extremely sorry”.

In a statement, Dempster's victim said the attack had a "significant impact" on him and he was "living in constant fear” and struggling to sleep.

Dempster made a racist threat about the man while talking to a police officer after the incident, the court heard.

He later admitted affray, criminal damage and threatening a person with an offensive weapon.

Recorder Bex added 14 days’ imprisonment, to be served consecutively, for committing the offences in breach of a suspended prison sentence which had been imposed earlier in 2022.