Man jailed after court case collapsed due to 'biggest grass' threat to witness on YouTube
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A man has been jailed after a court case collapsed due to chilling threats made to the alleged victim in a YouTube video.
Peter Connor uploaded a video titled 'Traveller's Biggest Grass' in which the man was called a 'squealer' and told he would be beaten 'from one end of England to the other'.
Connor, of Millers Lane, Wigan, has now been jailed for 18 months after his trial heard that the alleged victim had fled the country.
Derby Crown Court heard how Patrick Hanrahan had been 'stabbed multiple times' at a travellers site in the city in 2015, the Manchester Evening News reports.
(Image: Contributed)
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Three men were due to face trial for wounding with intent but the trial collapsed when Mr Hanrahan left the country, fearful for his safety after violent threats were made in the footage posted online.
Mr Hanrahan fled the country and disappeared, causing the trial against the trio to collapse.
Now Connor has been jailed after pleading guilty to witness intimidation.
Judge Jonathan Bennett said: “Patrick Hanrahan was stabbed multiple times in the Derby area.
“He became a reluctant witness, fleeing the UK.
“You were involved in a short video which I have had the opportunity to see.
“It was a frightening video in which you threatened to ‘beat him from one end of the UK to the other’ if he returned.
“He was told he was ‘a squealer’ and told he would be shut up if he came back.
“He moved away for his own safety and one factor, quite clearly, will have been this video.
(Image: Derby Telegraph/BPM Media)
“Anything that interferes with the criminal justice system is taken extremely seriously.”
Katrina Wilson, prosecuting, said three men were due to face trail for wounding with intent after Mr Hanrahan was stabbed a number of times at a travellers site in Derby in 2015.
She said: “He left the UK in a bid to distance himself from those involved in the assault.
“This video was uploaded later in which he is called a ‘squealer,’ that he will be shot and ‘beaten from one end of the UK’.
“He was scared people were looking for him and since then he cannot be traced.
“As a result of this, the prosecution had no alternative than to offer no evidence and the case was dropped.”
Miss Wilson said police received evidence that Connor had been involved in uploading the video and he was arrested.
(Image: Derby Telegraph/BPM Media)
She said in his interview he answered 'no comment' to the questions he was asked.
Patrick Buckley, for Connor, said his client has spent almost a year on a tagged curfew since he was arrested and charged with this offence.
He said: “I do accept on his behalf that this crosses the custodial threshold because matters of this type ultimately strike at the heart of the justice system.”