A man who was jailed for three years after pinning down a judge and ‘relentlessly’ punching him in court can now be named. Greg Hazletine, 41, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and criminal damage to a radiator after he threw it at His Honour Judge Patrick Perusko. Hazletine also admitted using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour toward Recorder Dharmesh Patel in a separate incident.
According to sentencing remarks, Hazletine had been in a hearing before Recorder Patel when he became ‘visibly agitated, challenging the order [imposed by the judge] and shouting’. The recorder was ‘apprehensive’ and ‘fearful of being approached and being subject of reprisals’.
As a result, His Honour Judge Patrick Perusko, the family designated judge for Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire, took over the conduct of the case. A security officer was instructed to be present in the court and hearings were held in ‘the largest and safest courtroom at Milton Keynes’.
During one hearing, the judge had to leave the courtroom twice because Hazeltine was being ‘verbally abusive and aggressive’. When the judge stood to leave again, Hazletine ‘threw a small free standing electric radiator across the courtroom towards the judge’s bench…jumped on top of the table and vaulted the judicial barrier’.
