Man savagely attacks friend, dog, friend's dad, and police officer

A man smacked a dog to the head with a steel-toecapped boot and threatened to kill his friend's parents as he tore through their property like a "whirlwind". Reece Bates was staying in his friend Ben Staddon's caravan when he launched into a series of terrifying violent attacks, Cardiff Magistrates' Court heard.

Bates, described by one of the victims as a "rap artist" from Bristol, did not turn up to his trial after being charged with assaulting two members of the public and a police officer, threatening to kill two people, criminal damage, and causing unnecessary suffering to a dog. Two of the victims, Ben Staddon and his father Neil, were questioned as the trial went ahead in the absence of 28-year-old Bates.

The violence happened on February 20 at the Staddon family's farm in Llanharan. On the farm was a house where Neil Staddon and his wife Cheryl lived and a caravan where Ben Staddon lived. Ben knew Bates through a mutual connection and had agreed to let him stay temporarily as he was homeless. During the night in question Bates was drinking and "went from a friendly, normal person to a paranoid, aggressive one", Ben Staddon told the court.

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"By 5am he was being physically violent," Mr Staddon added. "He was smashing up the caravan, smashing the windows, ripping the curtains down, smashing up the radiators. He had an axe in his hand at one point. He was violently attacking his dog and my dog. He was striking the dog in the head with a steel toecap boot and it was yelping in extreme pain. He jumped on a sofa, broke a computer. The place was like a bomb site afterwards. He was like a whirlwind."

Ben Staddon took his dog outside and tried to drive away but Bates climbed onto his car and broke the windscreen. Then Bates moved on to the parents' house. "He was saying he was going to kill my mother and father. He got hold of me a few times and ripped my shirt. He had a sharp edge from a smashed porcelain plant pot in his hand and he was lunging with it towards me."

Giving evidence after his son Neil Staddon said he and his wife Cheryl were woken by a "ruckus" as Bates entered their home. "He was ranting and shouting and screaming," said Neil Staddon. "He elbowed me in the face and kicked me while I was trying to get him down the stairs. He said he was going to kill my son, me, and my wife. We understand he didn't come to the farm to attack us. I don't know what it was the result of, his mental state or what he'd been doing."

The court heard a recording of Cheryl Staddon's call to police. In clear distress she said: "He's from Bristol, he's a rap artist or something. But he's on something. He's gone crazy." Eventually Ben Staddon managed to drag Bates out of the house and police arrived. An officer's bodycam footage showed Bates kicking a police van door into the face of an officer as he was being arrested.

District Judge Charlotte Murphy found Bates guilty of all charges and issued a warrant for his arrest. For the latest court reports sign up here to our crime newsletter.