Rodney Tighe sentenced to two years’ jail after threatening to kill neighbours in Ringwood

A Ringwood man who was so enraged with his neighbours’ early-morning noise that he walked into their unit and said he would kill them was on a community corrections order at the time — for a very similar offence.

Rodney Tighe was jailed following a sentencing at the County Court on August 6.

A Ringwood man has been jailed for two years after he threatened to kill his three Indian neighbours because he thought they were too noisy.

Rodney Tighe, 53, was sentenced in the County Court on August 6 after pleading guilty to one count of aggravated burglary and three counts of common law assault.

Tighe, who was drunk at the time, walked into a unit at 10-12 New St in Ringwood just after 1am on October 14, 2018.

He tried to punch flatmates Jagdish Dhaliwal, 21, Harwinder Grewal, 19 and Sukhpal Uppal, 20, but they blocked his attempts and dragged him out of the unit.

The unit block in New St, Ringwood, where the incidents took place. Picture: Google Maps

Tighe yelled “I’m going to kill you, you will all be gone, you will all be dead” as he was forced out by the three men.

Police arrested him an hour later at his home two doors away from his victims’ unit.

The court heard police were aware of “a history of problems” between Tighe and his three neighbours.

Tighe previously assaulted one of the men in February 2018 when he went to the unit armed with a silver pole and a fake handgun and threatened to shoot them.

He was sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order on September 11, 2018.

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The court heard police had to suspend their interview with Tighe after his arrest due to his level of intoxication.

When it resumed, Tighe claimed there were too many Indians living in the unit, they made too much noise in the early hours of the morning, and he went to confront them about the issue.

Judge Claire Quin told Tighe there was “aggravating features” of his offending including that he had been placed on a CCO a few weeks earlier.

“It is clear that they (the three housemates) each would have been scared by you going into their home in the early hours of the morning and aggressively approaching them, punching one of them, trying to punch another and threatening all of them,” she said.

Judge Quin ruled Tighe had served just over 10 months of his sentence on remand.

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