Roofer, 46, who threatened to ‘murder’ his police officer neighbour when he was asked to turn down his music avoids jail after arguing it shouldn’t have been taken literally because of his Irish heritage

• Stephen Hunter, 46, made the threat at his home in Costessey, Norfolk 
• Shouted: ‘They’ll be a murder when I come down there’ 
• Given a 12-month community order with 160 hours unpaid work

A roofer who threatened to ‘murder’ a neighbour was spared jail after his lawyer argued that his Irish heritage meant he did not mean it literally.

Stephen Hunter, 46, made the threat during a heated row after his neighbour, an off-duty police officer, asked him to turn down the volume of loud music he was playing at his home in Fishers Close, Costessey, Norfolk.

Norwich magistrates heard how he threatened to stab the officer who confronted him, saying his children couldn’t get to sleep because of the noise.

Hunter was said to have shouted out of his window: ‘They’ll be a murder when I come down there.’

But his lawyer Lisa Robinson told the court: ‘He is part Irish and they do not use the word murder in the context that it is always taken.

Norwich magistrates heard how Stephen Hunter, 46, threatened to stab the officer who confronted him, saying his children couldn’t get to sleep because of the noise

Mr Hunter made the threat during a heated row after his neighbour, an off-duty police officer, asked him to turn down the volume of loud music he was playing at his home in Fishers Close, Costessey, Norfolk

‘Despite that, he knows that his behaviour on this occasion was not acceptable.’

Ms Robinson said Hunter had been living in his flat for two years and that his neighbour had recently moved in.

Another neighbour told how the officer had asked him to turn down the music, and Hunter had replied: ‘Why don’t you come upstairs and talk face to face instead of shouting at me?’.

Ms Robinson added: ‘Mr Hunter had been playing music and had become involved in an altercation with a neighbour and he did not handle it properly.’

Hunter, who is a self-employed roofer, had been on licence after being released from prison when the incident happened. 

In a statement read in court, his victim said he was now ‘constantly worried about protecting himself’.

He added he and his family had been left ‘nervous about answering the door and suspicious of anyone knocking’.

The officer said: ‘I constantly have to have my guard up in a place where I should feel at home.’

Hunter admitted threatening behaviour and was given a 12-month community order with 160 hours unpaid work and 25 rehabilitation days, but magistrates refused an application for a restraining order.

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