Damian Hunter jailed for assaulting Scarborough sister

Damian John Hunter, 39, made a stabbing move with the weapon towards his sibling’s eye, said Eleanor Durdy prosecuting, at York Crown Court.

When police arrived, he was on top of her with the six-inch knife and she was screaming.  Officers had to taser him when he refused to put the knife down.

In her personal statement, the sister said Hunter behaved badly when he had delusions that he was his non-existent wife, ‘Veronica’.

‘Veronica’ can be very nasty, she said.

“I do believe on the day he assaulted me, ‘Veronica’ was in control of his actions,” she said.

Judge Simon Hickey accepted a psychiatrist’s report that Hunter had an emotionally unstable personality disorder and a psychotic condition.

But, he said, Hunter has a long history of violent offences, including carrying a knife, had been drinking vodka before assaulting his sister, and knew how alcohol made him behave.

“You have to take in hand your own life and accept the consequences for your actions,” he told Hunter.

He jailed Hunter for two years.

Ms Durdy said Hunter had got angry while the siblings were preparing for the roast dinner he had suggested they have.

He jumped on his sister, put her to the ground, bit her check and told her: “I will stab the … out of you”.

After she got up, he grabbed her from behind, and bit her on the back.

She managed to get out away from him and when he got a knife and accosted her friend outside the house, she tried unsuccessfully to lock him out.

But he got in, put her to the ground again and holding her head down, put the knife to her cheek and neck and made a stabbing move towards her eye.

Ms Durdy said the sister “wants her brother to receive help for his mental health and to see him again”.

Emily Hassell, defending, said Hunter had committed the offences within weeks of being released from a psychiatric unit where he had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act for the third time in five years.

A psychiatrist had assessed him as needing ongoing treatment.

Hunter, of Briercliffe, Scarborough, pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm to his sister and threatening her with an offensive weapon in private.

Ms Durdy said the sister had allowed Hunter to stay at her house because he had no electricity in his.

When they went to buy the ingredients for the chicken roast, Hunter had bought vodka which he started drinking when they got back to her home.

Ms Hassell said Hunter had got a job working in a Malton factory after he was released from a previous sentence, but had lost it in the Covid pandemic.

His mental health had gone downhill after that.