Father who bricked a police car gets his wish to be sent to jail

Photo shows Sean Barnett who got his wish
-Credit: (Image: Nottinghamshire Police)


A father who deliberately damaged a police car with a brick has got his wish to be sent to prison. Nottingham Crown Court heard how convicted arsonist Sean Barnett told police he committed the crime “as a cry for help” and “because a voice in his head told him to”.

At the time of the offence, in Beeston, the 38-year-old was the subject of a suspended sentence order for attacking his then-pregnant partner and setting fire to her clothes. Now he has been handed a 16-month jail term which is what he wanted his barrister to ask the judge for.

Lauren Manuel, mitigating, said: “This was an offence committed as a cry for help. He was struggling with class A drug addiction and his one-year-old son had been put up for adoption and that had an impact on his mental health.

“He wanted to be arrested and he asks for the suspended sentence to be activated today. His plan for the future is that he needs support and he wants it in a prison environment.”

In September 2023, Barnett, then of Butt Street, Sandiacre, and now of no fixed address, was handed a 22-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, at Derby Crown Court.

That was imposed for a set of offences which firstly saw him take a friend’s car and crash it into a refuse lorry in Coronation Road, Ilkeston, in July 2022, while under the influence of crack cocaine. Months later, he assaulted his pregnant partner before setting fire to her clothes at the shared accommodation where they were living, slapping her across the face, going for her throat and then throwing a glass of vodka at her face.

The newer Nottingham offences happened at 9.20pm on August 26, this year. Prosecutor Eunice Gedzah said: “Police officers arrived at (the former) Beeston police station to see the defendant sitting on the bonnet of a police vehicle. He informed them he had smashed a window saying he had used a large brick to cause the damage.

“He was arrested and informed the officers he had thrown the brick because a voice in his head had told him to do so.” Barnett pleaded guilty to criminal damage and being in breach of a suspended sentence order.

He has 10 previous convictions for 14 offences. Judge James Sampson activated 15 months of the suspended sentence and added an extra month for the damage.

He said: “I am going to activate the suspended sentence, that is your wish, but I am going to give you credit for your guilty plea. You are a man who is quite capable of sorting himself out but from time to time you get setbacks and on this occasion it was a considerable setback. I hope you sort yourself out in the future.”