He said ‘Champion! Thanks’ when told he was going inside
A man has been jailed for smashing the windows of a solicitors firm, just a day after being handed a suspended sentence for committing the same crime.
Michael Patrick Williams, a 61-year-old homeless man with 460 previous convictions, was hit with an eight-week suspended sentence at Teesside Magistrates’ Court on Monday after he smashed the windows of Watson Woodhouse Solicitors’ office. Just a day later, Williams returned to the Grade II listed building to smash the windows again, before handing himself into the police.
According to the Evening Gazette, District Judge Kate Meek handed Williams an 18-week restraining order, to be served half on licence, half in custody. When told he was going to prison for nine weeks, Williams said: “Champion! Thanks.” He was also ordered to pay £360 in compensation to the firm.
Watson Woodhouse Solicitors is headquartered in Middlesborough and, among other areas, has expertise in armed forces law, prison law and conveyancing. Attempts to contact the firm about the vandalism — which reportedly cost it £8,000 to repair — have so far been unsuccessful.
Law firm premises aren’t stranger to attacks like Williams’. Last month, someone used black spray-paint to scrawl the words “FUCK LAWYERS!” at the main entrance of international oufit Hill Dickinson’s Liverpool headquarters.
The office — in No.1 St. Paul’s Square building — is the workplace of about 700 Hill Dickinson staff.
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