A SWINDON father-to-be who committed a string of violent attacks has avoided an immediate trip to prison.

Magistrates decided it would be better that Talon Gary Welham worked with the probation service to “stop [him] coming to court”.

They chastised the 19-year-old for having a “major impact on other people”.

The incidents occurred in Swindon between June 3, 2021 and March 12, 2022.

Swindon Magistrates’ Court heard on Thursday last week (June 23) that Welham was involved in a street brawl with a neighbour.

He said he was walking home on June 3 last year when another man got out of a Vauxhall Astra and challenged him to a fight.

A chest of drawers was smashed by the other man, and they used shards of the broken drawers to swing at each other, prosecutor Asha Seenauth told the court.

Three months later, on September 17, Welham was involved in another incident where he spat at a woman who was walking on the pavement.

“He spat in my face, shouted abuse at me such as ‘you f****** fat s***, watch what I’m going to do, I’m going to stamp on your baby’s head, I’m going to put a machete through your door,” the victim said in a statement read by Ms Seenauth.

“I don’t understand where this has come from but because he was walking his dog which was a Pitbull with his mum he felt he could do this to me.”

Six months later, he stabbed at a taxi driver’s bonnet, causing hundreds of pounds worth of damage, and keeping the cabbie off work for two days whilst it was fixed.

He was left scared after Welham attacked the taxi after it had just picked someone up at 6.10am on March 12.

Welham also broke the windscreen, causing glass to shatter of the driver’s legs, before he was able to get away.

Ms Seenauth said that Welham has ten convictions for 18 offences, but this is his first time in an adult court.

Mitigating, Emma Thacker said that her client suffers from “quite severe ADHD” and has learning difficulties.

“This is a young man who emotionally struggles when there are issues.”

She labelled the first incident as “six of one and half a dozen of others”, and that the other man had chased the defendant down the street with a baseball bat.

In relation to the verbal abuse of the woman, Ms Thacker said that Welham was verbally abused first, but admitted he “went over the top”.

Meanwhile, she said that the taxi driver had driven over his bike and that is why he reacted.

Sentencing, chairman of the bench, Rachel Gowshall, imposed a 25 week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.

She said: “This is quite involved, very serious.

“You are in the adult court, things get more serious here.

“There are many people with ADHD who do not go around doing this sort of thing. The things you have done has had a major impact on other people.

“We feel there is a lot of work [probation] can do with you to stop you coming to court and stop you committing these sort of offences.”

Welham, of Rogers Close, pleaded guilty to one assault, two section 4 public order offences, one assault by beating, one criminal damage, and one charge of having an article with intent to destroy or damage property.

During the suspended sentence, Welham must complete 50 rehabilitation activity days.

He was fined £162 for the affray, and must pay a total of £577.80 in compensation to the taxi driver, the owner of the taxi, and the woman he spat at.

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