An 83-year-old man who was imprisoned for constantly blaring Classic FM in his home has died while serving his sentence.
Ian Trainer was jailed for 24 weeks in February this year after he was found to have breached a condition of a restraining order, but he was jailed again after continuing to breach the order when he was released.
The pensioner was given a restraining order in 2019 which banned him from playing any audio at a volume exceeding normal talking level between the hours of 9 am and 10 pm.
The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) confirmed Ian Trainer had sadly passed away – a Prison Service spokesman said that the HMP Liverpool prisoner Ian Trainer died in hospital on the 24 November and that the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman had been informed.
The spokesman didn’t confirm the cause of Ian Trainer’s demise and said that it was a matter for the coroner.
At a hearing in February, Liverpool Magistrates Court heard how Ian Trainer’s neighbour, Thomas Michael Thompson, had experienced noise pollution from his neighbour’s property for many years.
On December 17, 2019, a police officer attended Ian Trainer’s property in Liverpool, after being called out for a noise complaint by Thomas Michael Thompson.
The court heard Ian Trainer told the officer that he enjoyed playing music at a level he enjoyed as he was being arrested for breaching the straining order.
The statement, read in court, also reported that Ian Trainer had said he had a nasty cold and could only hear in one ear. He also informed the officer that being on steroids for a medical illness meant he couldn’t wear headphones as they irritated his ears.
Ian Trainer was sentenced to 24 weeks in jail for breaching the order and the judge told the court that he’d played music at a level that induced distress.
Ian Trainer was also ordered to pay court costs of £600 and a further victim surcharge to Mr Thompson of £122.
The pensioner appeared again at Liverpool Crown Court in June via video link from HMP Altcourse and was remanded in custody.
He faced allegations of breaching the court order again by playing music too loudly.
Ian Trainer pleaded not guilty to the charge, arguing the accusations were vicious lies. He also said he had underlying health issues.
It’s not evident whether Ian Trainer, who had been before the courts numerous times in recent years relating to noise complaints, had been convicted of the new allegations at the time of his demise.
However, at 82, his hearing might not have been so good, either way, what sort of society puts an old man in jail for doing what he enjoys in his final years and doing no real harm to anyone else and then the system whines that it’s not got enough space in their prisons for murderers et cetera, that’s because it’s too full of old people who have been a tad mischievous.
And I bet there wouldn’t have been any objections if the neighbour had a liking of classical music, and this is the same pathetic society that arrested an old lady in her 70s for protesting outside the houses of parliament and handcuffed her and carried her spread eagle to put her face down in the back of the police van, which was horrendous.
Would it have not been more cost-effective to fit a bit of soundproofing in this mans home? He was old and perhaps a little bit deaf and this hardly warranted a prison sentence.
So, it was deemed appropriate to put this poor man in prison, yet we have terrorists wandering our streets, absolutely inexplicable.
