A MOURNER grieving for a friend smashed a young mother’s car window with a golf club after attending his funeral.

Sam Wade, 24, from Cwmbran, shattered the rear window of the woman’s Hyundai i10 after drinking too much and arguing with a gang outside his house.

Hannah Friedman, prosecuting, told Cardiff Crown Court: “Police were responding to an emergency call when they saw the defendant.

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“Officers described him as slurring his words and stumbling.

“They arrested him of suspicion of criminal damage and he made no reply when he was cautioned.”

Glass particles were found in Wade’s pocket.

Miss Friedman said: “CCTV of the incident was obtained and it showed the defendant standing on the side of the road with a group of youths before swinging a golf club towards a car.

“The group then runs off.”

The victim, described as a young mother, said the damage caused her “great annoyance” and she had to make alternative arrangements for her school run as a result of needing to repair the window.

This offence put the defendant in breach of a suspended prison sentence imposed last year for running off from arresting police officers.

Miss Friedman said the criminal damage, which he pleaded guilty to, took place on September 30, 2021.

Wade, of Cocker Avenue, had been handed an eight-month jail sentence, suspended for 24 months, in May 2021 for escaping from lawful custody.

Gareth Williams, representing the defendant, said: “What he tells me is that his mother is good friends with mother of the victim and his mother has paid compensation to her because of the damage he caused to that window.

“I’ve got no proof of that but he tells me it has been done.

“The defendant regrets that offence of course.

“He had been at a friend’s funeral that day and he accepts he had been drinking too much.

“An incident later that evening took place where other young men that he doesn’t know very well came to outside his house.

“They brought some with golf clubs and he took one of them.

“There was an argument and he took it out on the window of the car.”

The judge, Recorder Andrew Hammond, adjourned sentence so that more information could be obtained from the Probation Service into Wade.

He warned the defendant he could be going straight to prison.

The defendant, who was granted bail, is due to be sentenced on July 21.