We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Brandon Lund, 25, only remembered to check in on the child when a neighbour reminded him, but even then, left the youngster to attempt to feed itself. When the child’s mother discovered the child covered in a sticky substance and biting its hands as if it was hungry, she called the police.

But a court yesterday Lund went on to wave a knife at the woman’s father and threatened to kill him at the address in Bradford, West Yorkshire.

Catherine Duffy, prosecuting at Bradford Crown Court, said: “He came out holding a kitchen knife, described as a carving knife with an eight or nine-inch blade. He ran towards the man shouting ‘Come on you’re a dead man, I’ll kill you.’ He put it towards his stomach area around three times but didn’t make contact. The defendant asked a neighbour to hide the knife in their garden but when they refused he walked away with it.”

A knife was later found in an alleyway and another was found inside the house, reports Yorkshire Live.

Lund was arrested and interviewed the next day but made no comment.

Lund pleaded guilty to neglect of a child, affray and possession of an offensive weapon. The court heard he also fell to be sentenced for possession with intent to supply cocaine and cannabis, after working on a “drugs line” at a hostel in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

He was jailed for two years and five months.

Ms Duffy said that in September 2020, while living in a hostel, Lund began to sell drugs. His Honour Judge Mushtaq Khokhar said “whoever was running that particular drugs line at any given time would instruct others to go and meet the customers at various places where the drugs were going to be supplied.”

He said Lund was caught on CCTV on September 30 and when police were informed they arrested him and found him to be in possession of three mobile phones and 66 wraps of cocaine. The court heard Lund failed to cooperate with police by refusing to give the pin codes for one of the phones to them. After being charged with neglect, affray and possession of an offensive weapon, he brought the drugs charges to the court’s attention as they had not yet been dealt with.

The court heard Lund had previous convictions for shoplifting, battery, threatening others and resisting arrest.

Jayne Beckett, defending, said he was “anxious” to have the matters dealt with together and said he had played a “lesser role” in running the drugs line. She said: “It is clear he had a life where, certainly from 14 or onwards, he was homeless, sleeping on the sofas of friends, being in hostels and the like. By the time September 2020 came around, he found himself in a shared hostel in Wakefield with nothing, no food, no family support – nothing.”

Ms Beckett said Lund was befriended by people in the hostel who he thought were “good-natured” and were prepared to give him food. She said: “But what followed was they invited him into the handling of the drugs at their direction. When I’ve asked him about his lifestyle at the time he said if anyone checked his room they would have found nothing, no food, no real means and he was drinking because he felt he had no chance as the only people he had in the world were the people directing him.”

The court heard that after his involvement in the drug offences, he went to Bradford, where he committed his next set of crimes. Ms Beckett said since Lund’s remand, he has been able to “detoxify” himself, but his taste of custody at first was marred with self-isolation as he did not come out of his cell, having previously been stabbed in custody. She said: “He has got a job as a barber on the wing and has worked to engage further with the mental health services. He is resolved to get his life into a better place.”

Judge Khokhar jailed Lund for two years and five months. He will have to serve half of that sentence before being released on licence.

Source: Read Full Article