Court told about brick siege terror

ROCKS and lumps of concrete hurled through windows of a Wisbech home narrowly missed a three-year-old girl who had been asleep in bed minutes earlier. The youngster s family was besieged in their home early on a Sunday when a new resident to the town smas

ROCKS and lumps of concrete hurled through windows of a Wisbech home narrowly missed a three-year-old girl who had been asleep in bed minutes earlier.

The youngster's family was besieged in their home early on a Sunday when a new resident to the town smashed three windows.

The girl's father, John Hrouda, was almost hit on the head with a brick.

"Mr Hrouda got his family together, including a one-year-old child, and placed them in the middle of the house," Fenland magistrates were told by prosecutor John Nooijen on Wednesday.

"His pregnant wife and children were crying and hysterical."

The man who threw the rocks was Zenonas Giedraitis, who had arrived in the UK from Lithuania just hours before the incident, having travelling for one-and-a-half days with very bad toothache, his solicitor Roger Glazebrook told the court.

He had been the victim of an attack himself after asking for directions, and cannot remember the incident at the Hrouda family home.

Blood tests showed there was no alcohol or drugs present, and psychiatric tests had revealed no problems.

Mr Hrouda had seen Giedraitis standing in his back garden, picking up bricks from a pile of rubble, said Mr Nooijen. The three-year-old girl's bed was covered in glass, and there were rocks on the bedroom floor.

Giedraitis shouted aggressively in a foreign language and threw a brick that missed Mr Hrouda only because he ducked. He also damaged Mr Hrouda's car.

When arrested he kicked out , hitting one officer on the leg and the other on the arm.

After his arrest, Giedraitis, 36, or Corporation Road, Wisbech, fainted and spent a few days in hospital.

Giedraitis was deeply ashamed, said Mr Glazebrook. He had admitted two charges of criminal damage, two charges of assault, and using threatening behaviour on January 15. He must carry out 100 hours of unpaid community work, pay £1,000 compensation to the Hrouda family, £50 to each of the two police officers, and £50 costs.