Thug who threatened to slit woman’s throat in Felixstowe attack is jailed for six years

A Felixstowe man who smashed his way into a woman’s flat, entered her bedroom, and threatened to slit her throat if she did not give him money has been jailed for six years.

An Ipswich Crown Court jury found Jamie Arnold, who has a history of convictions for violence, guilty of two offences after two hours of deliberation.

The 32-year-old, formerly of Ipswich but now of Sea Road, Felixstowe, had denied attempted robbery and using violence to secure entry to premises.

During Arnold’s trial the court was told Sophie Govey was asleep in Avocet Court, Felixstowe, at 4.20am on November 8 when she heard someone banging on her front door.

When she looked through a spy hole she allegedly saw Jamie Arnold who she had met for the first time the previous day when he had visited her flat with a friend.

Arnold asked if he could come in and wash his hands but she told him to go away. When he threatened to kick the door down she called the police.

Officers told Arnold to leave and Miss Govey tried to go back to sleep. Less than ten minutes later she heard a loud smash from the rear of her flat and called the police again.

Arnold walked into her bedroom and turned on the light and stood with his hands behind his back as if holding something.

He told Miss Govey: “Don’t make me pull this out. I’ll slit your throat” before demanding money from her.

He had then looked for money and when he couldn’t find any he pulled a wire from a stereo in the room and stretched it tightly between his hands saying: “I would do it”.

Miss Govey said she didn’t have any money and Arnold then allegedly sat on her bed and made a telephone call to the man he had visited Miss Govey with the previous day.

When police officers arrived Arnold was still in the flat.

In January last year Arnold was jailed for 20 weeks by Ipswich magistrates after colliding with a car, assaulting the driver and stealing his vehicle.

He admitted assaulting two men, taking a car without consent, and racially aggravated disorderly behaviour.

In 2012 Arnold was jailed for two years after admitting grievous bodily harm when he broke a man’s jaw in a Felixstowe nightclub.

In 2011 Arnold was imprisoned for 20 months for smashing a bottle over an Ipswich pub manager’s head after having only been out of prison for three days.