A notorious York man has been jailed for threatening to stab and murder a woman in the city centre.
Roy George Finch, 47, was carrying a black-handled knife in a carrier bag when, in broad daylight in or around Coney Street, he shouted to the woman: “I’m going to murder you.
“You are going to be dead by the end of tonight. Believe me, I’m going to murder you.”
Finch, who knew the victim well, then called police himself and told a 999 operator to “get police there before he killed (the victim)”, prosecutor Emily Thorbjornsen told York Crown Court.
The named victim then dialled 999 and police arrived to arrest Finch who handed them a Sainsbury’s bag he had been carrying. When officers asked him what was inside the bag, he said: “It’s a knife, a stabbing-people knife, a brand-new stabbing-people knife.”
The blade was seized by officers and taken into police custody in York where Finch was placed in a holding cell.
Finch became aggressive towards an officer and demanded that the handcuffs be removed from his wrists. He then kicked the officer in the leg.
“He was then restrained but tried to wrap his leg around the officer’s leg which caused (the officer) to lose his step and fall onto the bench,” added Ms Thorbjornsen.
Finch then pulled his trousers down in front of custody staff and defecated on the floor. He then demanded that the cell be cleaned.
He then smeared the cell walls and door with his own faecal matter. He later urinated inside the cell.
Begging in a doorway
Finch, of no fixed address, was charged with possessing a knife in public, making threats to kill, assaulting a police officer and two counts of damaging a police cell.
He ultimately admitted all the offences and appeared for sentence yesterday (7 October) after being remanded in custody.
He initially denied making threats to kill the woman but ultimately pleaded guilty on the basis that she was with a group of people who had approached him in the street, one of whom had sworn at and threatened him.
Ms Thorbjornsen said that Finch and the victim, who were both homeless at the time, had known each other for about 10 years.
In the moments before the knife threat on 21 July, the victim had been walking towards St Helen’s Square when she saw Finch begging in a shop doorway.
One of the people in the victim’s group told Finch to leave her alone, in response to which he aimed a volley of abuse at her.
“The (victim) heard him on the phone asking for police and mentioning her name,” said Ms Thorbjornsen
“He walked towards her and shouted something along the lines of, ‘Believe me, I’m going to murder you. You are going to be dead by the end of tonight.’”
Finch had previous convictions for 42 offences including serious violence, threatening behaviour, being drunk and disorderly, theft, burglary, sending malicious communications and taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent.
In 2019, he received a 16-month jail sentence for assault occasioning actual bodily harm and damaging property.
Defence barrister Olivia Fraser said that drug abuse had been a factor in Finch’s psychiatric problems.
Judge Simon Hickey described Finch’s threats to the woman as “chilling”.
Finch was handed a 22-month prison sentence, but he will serve less than half of that behind bars under the Government’s early-release scheme to relieve overcrowding in Britain’s jails.
