A man has admitted threatening to burn down his former partner's home after accusing her of having an affair with his cousin. Lee Sokolowski, 22, of Pen y Banc, Brackla, also poured bleach over the driveway and back door of Leah Brimble's home in Kenfig Hill, ripped down a hanging basket and damaged a fence.
Prosecutor Vicki Walker told the court that on February 28, Sokolowski and his uncle went to collect belongings from the property after the end of their four-year relationship. While a fish tank was being dismantled, Sokolowski began kicking the front door and shouting through the letterbox: 'I'm going to burn your house down.'
When Ms Brimble looked, she saw bleach had been poured, her fence was broken in two places and a hanging basket had been ripped from the wall. In interview, Sokolowski admitted causing the damage out of spite and said bleach was 'highly inflammable', accepting how it would have looked with the threat to burn the house down.
Gwyn Davies, defending, said he could not find evidence that bleach was inflammable and claimed the hanging basket could 'remounted without too much difficulty'. He told the court that Ms Brimble had been carrying on an affair with Sokolowski's cousin James Hale, and that 'the red mist came down' – but described the threats as 'idle' and 'hot air'.
Court chairman Jeff Kibby told Sokolowski: 'This was quite nasty damage to your ex-partner's property and it was not a nice thing for the children to witness this going on.' Sokolowski was given an 18-month supervision order with 120 hours of unpaid work, ordered to pay £100 compensation and £200 costs, and made subject to a restraining order banning him from attending Ms Brimble's home.
