A 31-year-old Essex man who grabbed his grandmother by the neck and tried to strangle her while she was asleep in bed has had his sentencing hearing adjourned until September.

Barney Randall was due to have been sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court today (July 27) but he refused to get on a prison bus to bring him to court or get out of bed to appear at the hearing via a prison video link.

Randall, of Saxon Way, Broomfield, was found guilty by a jury in April of assaulting his grandmother causing her actual bodily harm, having a silver folding knife and criminal damage by smashing a bedroom door.

He was cleared of attempted murder and attempted grievous bodily harm.

Judge Emma Peters said Randall had refused to attend his trial which had gone ahead in his absence and since then he had refused to be seen by a psychiatrist and he had also refused to be interviewed by a probation officer for a pre-sentence report.

She adjourned the case to September 2 to give Randall another chance to speak to the probation service and to give his grandmother the opportunity to provide the court with a victim impact statement.

Joe Bird, prosecuting, said there had been a real risk of a tragic outcome from the assault.

He said that following the attack Randall’s grandmother had been worried if she heard a noise that her grandson had come back to “finish the job”.