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A bully who threatened to kill his depressed housemate before flooding his home in a row over bed bugs has been jailed.
Paul Richardson also shot an air rifle at Alan Quieros' front door and threatened to bite off his nose at their Margate home.
The 52-year-old former bricklayer told Canterbury Crown Court his victim fabricated the allegations for reasons unknown.
But a jury unanimously convicted Richardson of witness intimidation after hearing he terrorised Mr Quieros for alleged poor hygiene and a bedbug infestation.
Mr Quieros, 37, admitted his room was “a tip” at the Palace Hotel, Beunos Aires, but rejected claims he caused the infestation.
The anxiety and depression sufferer told the the jury: “I’m not the cleanest person in the world but how I live in my personal life is nothing to do with anyone else, is it?
“There have always been bed bugs (there).”
Richardson shot pellets at Mr Quieros' front door during the dispute on July 13, the court heard.
Police then discovered the suspect drinking beer in his room surrounded by ammo and a rifle.
“Mr Richardson accepted he shot at his (Mr Quieros') door out of frustration over the presence of bed bugs,” prosecutor Michelle Terry explained.
Mr Quieros told how Richardson kicked through his door twice and flooded his room on July 26, as a court date for the air-gun incident loomed.
“I heard Mr Richardson coming down the stairs (saying) I’m going to kill you I’m going to kill you," he said.
He added Richardson kicked through his locked door before the menacing intensified.
“He said ‘You are taking me to court’.
“I was about ready to bite your nose off and you are lucky I haven’t killed you already.”
Richardson left, only to burst through the door again and flip over Mr Quieros’ coffee table spilling his nicotine vaporizer gear, the court heard.
“There was then a sound of trickling water outside my door, I took it to be someone urinating outside my door.
“Water started coming through my ceiling.”
Officers discovered plumbing in the upstairs toilet had been tampered with, causing water to gush inside Mr Quieros home.
They soon discovered Richardson again inside his room drinking beer, this time with water pumping from removed plumbing, the floor becoming drenched.
But Andrew Collins, defending, accused Mr Quieros of lying under oath to have Richardson evicted from the Palace Hotel, a multiple occupancy shared dwelling.
When the barrister claimed Quieros’s hygiene caused a riff between the pair, he responded: “I’m not the cleanest person in the world but how I live in my personal life is nothing to do with anyone else, is it?”
Mitigating, Richardson’s barrister explained his client led an “industrious life” but showed symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
“There was a sense of frustration, perhaps, exacerbated by drink to explain, in part, his rather ridiculous behaviour,” he said.
Judge Simon James told Richardson his behaviour was “a serious offence”, adding witness intimidation “strikes at the heart” of the justice system.
“In such circumstances I’m satisfied only an immediate custodial sentence can be justified,” he said.
Richardson was jailed for 18 months for witness intimidation and possessing an air rifle, to which he pleaded guilty at a previous hearing.
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