Ex-Waterloo Road star jailed after threatening family with machete in drug-fuelled tirade
Craig Fitzpatrick, who starred in BBC drama Waterloo Road, threatened a family with a machete and smashed the windows of their home during a drink and drug fuelled tirade
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A former Watrerloo Road star has been jailed after threatening a family with a machete.
Craig Fitzpatrick, 34, who starred in the BBC drama, turned up to his victims’ home with his cousin after a volatile ‘family dispute’.
He threatened them with a machete and smashed the windows of their home during a drink and drug fuelled tirade.
Fitzpatrick, whose other credits include Shameless and Holby City, was jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to possession of a bladed article and affray.
Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard that Fitzpatrick was ‘highly intoxicated and under the influence of drugs’ when he arrived with the weapon on August 27.
A neighbour saw Fitzpatrick, from Oldham, strike the front door of the victims’ home with the 18-inch blade.
He went inside and said he wanted to speak to a man who lived there, while ‘swinging the machete’, the court heard.
He told a woman in the house that if the ‘family were seen’ on their estate ‘they would be dead’.
The woman was able to ‘push him out’ by using a broom.
The judge, Recorder Mark Ford, said: “You then used the machete to smash windows of the house. The occupants would have been terrified.”
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the family said they ‘no longer felt safe in their own home’.
The court heard that when Fitzpatrick went to the police station to hand himself in he indicated that he had himself been ‘threatened’.
Lisa Boocock, prosecuting, said: “He said he had gone to the house to and had been hit and assaulted by the family.”
The court heard that Fitzpatrick had 27 convictions for 49 offences and “intoxication runs through many of the incidents”.
In 2003, he was convicted of possession of a bladed article. His other previous convictions included affray, robbery and burglary.
David James, mitigating, said: “It is not simply an act that occurred out of the blue, or that he instigated himself.
“He is a man who isn’t a stranger to the court. He is a man who has a very different mindset from the past.
“He can’t change the past but he is trying to work towards the future. He has the maturity to accept his wrongdoings.”
Recorder Ford said: “You said you have the ability to make changes, and those changes are needed. You have the intelligence to put into practice your promises.”
Speaking to Fitzpatrick, who appeared via videolink from HMP Forest Bank, the judge said: “I am aware you are an actor.
MirrorCeleb