Yob called ‘hardest man in Port Talbot’ threatened to rip out worker’s eyeballs

Clayton Jones issued terrifying threats to workers (Picture: Media Wales)

A man who called himself ‘the hardest man in Port Talbot’ has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for a series of threats.

41-year-old Clayton Jones threatened to rip out someone’s eyeballs and eat them, before going on to stalk a woman and speak to her daughter.

Swansea Crown Court heard Jones had been diagnosed with emotionally unstable personality disorder and had spent many years engaging with mental health services, but ‘appears to be outside the boundaries of treatment’.

Sarah John, prosecuting, told the court that Jones’ interactions with staff at the Forge mental health centre in Port Talbot in January this year raised alarm bells.

In a series of calls to the centre, the defendant demanded money, and when told that was not possible, began issuing threats.

During the calls, Jones began threatening to kill a member of staff and then kill himself, and saying they had better send armed police officers ‘or the SAS’.

He also told a female member of staff he was going to get a blade and cut her eyeballs out and slit her jugular vein, saying, ‘it would be worth doing a 12-year stretch for’. 

Jones then turned up at the Forge and tried to get in before he was arrested on January 29 and later released on bail.

He’ll serve his sentences consecutively (Picture: Media Wales)

The court heard Jones was a regular visitor at Port Talbot Civic Centre, where he ‘persistently’ demanded money as well as food vouchers and mobile phones.

Jones then began stalking a female member of staff who works at the Civic Centre, including turning up at her home in the early hours of the morning, knocking on her door, and speaking to her daughter.

The defendant then began talking to the woman outside the Civic Centre and asking her about whether she was single or not, and he was seen sitting on the kerb outside her house.

The prosecutor said Jones was arrested after turning up at the Civic Centre on May 21 demanding money and a bus pass.

The court heard that the defendant was ‘verbally aggressive’ to officers on his way to the police station and subsequently threatened to slit an officer’s jugular the next time he saw him.

Jones previously pleaded guilty to making threats to kill, a public order offence, and stalking when he appeared in the dock for sentencing via videolink from prison.

He has seven previous convictions for 11 offences, including four batteries – involving staff at the Forge centre, a man in a car park who he punched in the face, and a former partner who he kicked and pushed into a wall – and public order matters.

His last conviction is from January this year, when he was given a 12-month conditional discharge for threatening to strangle and kill his neighbour in Briton Ferry.

Judge Paul Thomas KC said Jones had issued ‘threats to kill in the most lurid of terms’, adding: ‘It is quite clear to me you have an uncontrollable temper, no doubt down to your emotionally unstable personality disorder.’

He’s since been sentenced to two years in prison, and with a 20% discount for his guilty plea to stalking – a plea entered later in the court process – was sentenced to 18 months in prison to run consecutively, making an overall sentence of three-and-a-half years.

Jones will serve up to half the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.

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