A mentally ill man launched random attacks on members of the public waiting for the bus while suffering from delusions, a court heard today.
Damion Taylor, 48, punched one man convinced he was an alien, and that the i360 was a UFO. He also attacked a pregnant woman and her partner.
Both incidents happened at the bus stops opposite the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Eastern Road, Brighton.
During the same period, he broke into Sussex Heights and sprayed the word “paedophile” on a doormat – and urinated over a strangers car while making sure her Ring doorbell captured the footage.
Prosecuting at Brighton Magistrates Court today, Chandula Dassanayake said the incidents happened in July and August last year.
On 22 July, Jason Rummery was waiting at the bus stop at about 10pm when Taylor approached him, crossing the road and calling him a paedophile.
Taylor then grabbed his rucksack, but Rummery was able to take it back and walk off. Taylor then followed him and kicked him and punched him, calling him a “fucking alien.”
Later the same night, Ben O’Donovan-Iland and Marie Uwase, who was eight months pregnant, were waiting at the same bus stops when Taylor approached them.
He said to Mr O’Donovan-Iland: “Have you seen what’s going on there?” and went to punch Ms Uwase. Mr O’Donovan-Iland stopped the punch, but Ms Uwase was still knocked to the ground.
Taylor then walked back to the hospital and was detained.
Four days later, he urinated on Kinga Nowak’s car outside her house in Park Street, off Eastern Road. Mr Dassanayake said: “He started urinating on her car and the surrounding floor. This was captured on her Ring doorbell.
“He then goes to ring the bell, at which point Miss Nowak come out and asked him to leave.”
Finally, on 2 August, he broke into Sussex Heights with a can of paint and sprayed “paedophile” on the doormat.
When Taylor, of Regency Square, Brighton, was arrested some months later, police found a quantity of cannabis on him.
Defending, James Turner said: “It’s clear that this defendant was so mentally unwell at the time as to be suffering from a manic episode and he was exhibiting delusional beliefs and thoughts.
“You see him walking along the middle of the road with a vehicle close behind him and what you might consider a dangerous manner from someone not in control of their full faculties.
“These people were completely unknown to him, he had no previous contact with them. He was labouring under the delusion that the i360 was a spacecraft and Mr Rummery was an alien.
“That very much impacts upon his decision making.”
Sentencing, Helen Scott said: “This is a sad episode in your life and it wasn’t good news for those around you either.”
She imposed a nine-month community order, with a requirement to undertake 12 mental health treatment sessions over the next six months, and eight rehabilitation activity requirement days.
He was also ordered to pay Mr Rummery, Mr O’Donovan-Iland and Ms Uwase £50 compensation each, and the management company of Sussex Heights £250 compensation.
Someone let Reform’s Kieran Lay know about this.
What a silly remark by Benjamin: there is a serious issue with the sentencing policy surrounding patients with mental health conditions and trivialising it is unhelpful .
Benjamin cultivates the image of being fair-minded and measured, but every so often something causes the mask to slip, the recent decisive Reform rout of Labour being a good example, and the petty tribalism underneath is suddenly exposed.
Personally, it’s the consistent stream of those Reform councillors recently elected being suspended or removed which is important to remind people of why it’s a party of divisiveness, evidentially a really poor vetting procedure, and have been fielding a phantasmagoria of low-quality people. Sorry if mocking that ineptitude makes you feel uncomfortable about Reform. Reform’s ineptitude makes me uncomfortable too.
A few councillors being suspended or removed doesn’t really prove a “consistent stream” of anything, or justify a wider claim about a party being broadly divisive or full of low-quality candidates. When a party is growing quickly or expanding its local presence, it’s pretty normal that a few people will turn out not to be suitable once they’re actually in office. And a suspension usually reflects a specific incident or breach of rules, not evidence that the whole vetting system is broken or that most councillors are like that. It’s quite a leap from a small number of cases to describing a “phantasmagoria of low-quality people”. Tunnel-vision, tribal thinking tends to flatten everything into ‘us vs them’, which isn’t usually a helpful way to understand politics. Stepping back, staying open-minded is the way to go!
The thing to challenge here is that it’s not a small number of people; it’s one in ten seats. 10% of the Reform councillors are gone. And, even in these first two weeks, there have been 22 resignations. Even accounting for the post-election surge of failed vetting processes, that’s in the 150 range by next May. That’s worrying for the party, isn’t it?
Maybe they weren’t delusions?
Been about 20 Reform councillors gone since Thursday. That’s quite alarming. Stuart Prior is a specific example, islamophobic posts, suspended twice from different councils. Doesn’t that show incompetence in Reforms vetting process if it doesn’t stop people their own party has suspended?
Again, it’s just growing pains rather than some unique incompetence. Some people, like yourself, already desperately don’t want Reform to succeed, so they’ll naturally frame every resignation or suspension as ‘alarming’ and try to convince themselves, and others, that it proves the whole party is incompetent. Twenty councillors ‘gone’ sounds dramatic too, but that lumps together suspensions, resignations, disagreements and defections as if they’re all the same thing. It’s becoming obvious that Reform will win by landslide. You understand this much. Start by *honestly* asking yourself *why*, instead of these repeated attempts to discredit them.. which feel a bit desperate and likely to be counterproductive.
I’m afraid I don’t agree with your reasoning that being suspended – twice – for making Islamophobic posts in two different councils can be described as “growing pains”, but rather a suggestion of a lack of competence by the party to allow that kind of behaviour in.
One or two, you could argue a few bad actors, sure, but when you see the vast majority of are for, I’m sure you will agree, deplorable actions, then that starts to look more like a pattern. Daniel Taylor in Kent was jailed for coercive behaviour, and Robert Bloom in Northamptonshire was charged with racially aggravated harassment, to name a few more people.
I could go on, but ultimately, you’re right – I don’t think Reform is anything but a tribute act to UKIP, and when they are losing councillors faster than I have hot dinners, it’s hard to see anything but.
Obviously determined to find a way back into the unit, on the other hand has anyone checked the i360 for mysterious rays or signs from there ??? or anyone else found suffering from i360 symptoms ???