Barton Seagrave author who vaped in court jailed after breaching non-molestation order
An e-book author who once threw a bible across a court and told a judge to ‘f*** off’ has been sent to jail.
Peter Sortwell, author the The Village Idiot books, was before Northampton Crown Court in August to be sentenced for two crimes against female victims.
But during a previous hearing in September last year, which could not be reported until the conclusion of the case, the 44-year-old turned up to court drunk. He was refused entry to the building but somehow managed to then return into the court house in Lady’s Lane before he attempted to vape in the court room. He then verbally abused the prosecution barrister and told the judge to f*** off. He then shouted ‘where’s the press?’ before throwing a bible and being removed from the court room. He also sacked his legal representative.
Sortwell then abused our reporter on social media platform X, sent veiled threats to her via email and claimed to have sold 165,000 books.
He was back in court on August 11 to be sentenced after being found guilty, following a trial, of an actual bodily harm against a young female victim.
Sortwell, of Barton Seagrave, assaulted her in March 2023.
He also separately admitted contacting his former wife, from which he was prevented from doing by a non-molestation order made by Northampton Crown Court.
Sortwell was also re-sentenced for crimes he committed back in 2022 when he assaulted a nurse and a security guard working at Kettering General Hospital. He was still on a conditional sentence from those crimes when he re-offended.
He was given 20 weeks in custody for the assault on the female victim, six weeks for breaching a non-molestation order and one day each, to be served concurrently, for each of the 2022 offences.
Recorder Louise Cox also imposed a ten-year restraining order banning him from two schools and from entering any property where he believes his ex-wife is living.