Yob's three months to prove turnaround

Darlington lout Matthew Haymer yesterday faced a prison sentence of about two years for his latest flouting of an asbo.

His attack on a shopping centre security guard also put Haymer in breach of two suspended jail terms totalling 18 months.

But a judge gave the oncepromising footballer a final chance by deferring sentence after hearing of his recent good progress.

Martin Towers, in mitigation, said Haymer now has a job and was doing well under supervision and on his unpaid work requirement.

He said the 20-year-old onetime Sunderland youth team player was determined to end his wayward ways and stay out of trouble.

Teesside Crown Court heard that he had breached the anti-social behaviour order 11 times since it was imposed two years ago.

In May last year and February this year, he was given suspended prison sentences and warned it was his last chance to avoid jail. Recorder Carl Gumsley told him yesterday that he will be judged when he returns to court to be sentenced in September.

He said: “I do not want to lock you up. I do not like locking people up, but if that is the only way to get the message through, then I will do it.”

Mr Recorder Gumsley said it would be “utterly ridiculous”

to be facing a near-twoyear sentence for being “irritating and drunk”.

However, he said: “This is repeatedly breaching, and the courts will get to the point where they have no alternative but to lock you up.”

The judge said he was worried what Haymer would do with his £280-a-week wages from his recently-found warehouse job.

Mr Towers said: “His probation report says he is maturing – a welcome and perhaps overdue development.”

Haymer, of Carnaby Road, Darlington, was convicted of breaching his asbo after a trial at South Durham Magistrates’ Court.

He was abusive towards a guard at the Cornmill Shopping Centre, in Darlington – from which he had been barred – on February 21.

The court heard that he swore at the guard and threatened to hit them.