Doncaster man took crossbow and baseball bat to ex's house after split

Glenn Soffe smashed a window with the bat at an address on St Peter’s Road, Balby, at 4.20am, on December 1, last year, prosecutor Laura Marshall told Sheffield Crown Court.

Soffe’s ex was staying with a female friend, and that woman’s teenage daughter, when he turned up with another man.

Ms Marshall said Soffee was originally charged with making threats against the women, but the Crown accepted that the words said wer part of a disagreement between the two men.

“They were fearful and may well have considered that the threats made towards the male were aimed at them,” she said.

Soffe denied the allegations in police interview. The court heard he has previous convictions, including battery and public order offences, dating back to 2009, when he was a youth.

Edward Moss, mitigating, said Soffe has already served the equivalent of a ten-month prison sentence, and urged Judge Roger Thomas QC to suspend the sentence.

He said Soffee hadn’t seen his three-year-old daughter since December, and hoped to continue with a cleaning business.

“A lengthy course of imprisonment would cause that business to fold,” he said. “It’s rescueable as we speak.”

He said the crossbow was neither loaded nor cocked.

“There is clearly a degree of immaturity,” he added “He wants to put this unsavoury matter behind him.”

Soffe, 26, of Wordsworth Avenue, Balby, Doncaster, appeared via video-link from HMP Leeds, having pleaded guilty to affray, possession of offensive weapons, and damage.

Judge Thomas told him: “On the day when these offences happened you had news of the end of a brief relationship.

“You response was to consume alcohol and probably drugs – I’m not sure. Against that background you purposefully went to this address.”

He said the crossbow was “fearsome-looking” and could “create the most terrible damage if it was used.”

He handed Soffee 18 months in prison. A two-year restraining order, banning Soffee from contacting the women, was made. The crossbow was made forfeit and destroyed.