Criminal who threatened to kill police officer has jail time INCREASED after asking for it to be cut
A villain jailed for making ‘sinister’ threats to kill a police officer will serve an extra month behind bars for wasting court time with a hopeless bid for freedom.
Geoffery Dillion told the officer he would get a gun and shoot him after he was arrested for going into a Lidl store when banned.
His threats then took a chilling turn as he identified which school the constable’s young daughter went to and said he had seen him going to pick her up.
The 53-year-old, of Burnt Tree, Tipton, was jailed for two years at Wolverhampton Crown Court in January, after being found guilty of making threats to kill and breaching a restraining order.
He challenged his sentence at the Court of Appeal in London yesterday, arguing it should either be suspended so he could walk free, or be reduced.
But top judges instead handed him another four weeks in jail for taking up their time with the ‘unmeritorious’ appeal.
The court heard Dillion, who has a long criminal record, was banned from entering Lidl stores in Tipton and West Bromwich in October 2011.
On June 18 last year, he was spotted in the West Bromwich branch, in High Street, by a police officer who recognised him and knew about the ban.
When confronted Dillion became abusive and swore at the officer, and was arrested.
Mr Justice Holroyde told the court that, once at the police station, his abuse turned into ‘something much more sinister’.
He said he would get someone to ‘sort out’ the officer and threatened to get hold of a gun and shoot him, saying: “One bullet would do it”.
He then told the officer he knew where his young daughter went to school and which route he took to pick her up, and mentioned other personal details.
The court heard Dillion has previous convictions for 44 offences, which include assaulting police officers and dangerous driving.
In appeal documents written by himself, which the judge said demonstrated a ‘confusion of thinking’, Dillion argued his sentence was too long and should have been suspended.
But Mr Justice Holroyde said there were ‘no possible grounds’ for challenging the jail term.
Adding a month to his jail term, the judge concluded: “The court’s time has been taken up with this application.
“The inevitable result of that is that other, more deserving applications, have been delayed.”
