I have a cunning plan! Farmer facing jail after bid to scare off teenagers... by dressing up as 'mad axeman' and smearing fiancee with KETCHUP

With blood pouring down her face, the desperate woman screamed as she banged on the car window begging the teenagers inside to save her from a mad axeman who was chasing her down a moonlit farm track.
'Let me in, let me in,' she screamed.
Then, out of the moonlight - with echoes of the horror film The Shining - a man appeared and tapped the 4ft axe on the car window and tried to get in.
Terrified, the teenagers drove off.
Which was exactly what the 'mad axeman' and his 'victim' wanted. For he was John Powell, a 28-year-old farmer, and the woman smeared in tomato ketchup was his fiancee, Lucy Walton.


Both were desperate to scare off some teenagers who regularly parked there and who they believed were a nuisance.
So they hatched the 'mad axeman' plan which has come to light with Powell appearing in court on a charge of possessing an axe in a public place and using behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress. He now faces the prospect of being jailed.
South Lakeland Magistrates' Court heard that Powell and his fiancee had had problems with teenagers parking on their land and came up with the plan on the spur of the moment to scare them from a lay-by on Cleabarrows Lane, Windermere.
One of the teenagers, Simon Jackson, 19, told magistrates the incident had left him and his friends petrified.
'We were parked in the lay-by playing cards when we saw a woman come from down the lane,' he said.
'She got to the car and was asking us to help her saying: "Let me in, let me in".
'She was banging on the window in terror.
'Not long after he came with an axe and was tapping on the window. Then we were scared because we thought he was going to smash through the window.'
He said the event had left them 'absolutely terrified' and they drove off and called the police

The court was told the couple were later pulled over by officers in their car near close to Windermere Golf Club.
Police cautioned Miss Walton and arrested Mr Powell, who works for Hawkshead Brewery.
Weeping as she gave evidence to the court, Miss Walton said the spoof attack had been her idea and a split-second decision.
She said they had wanted to scare the men who she believed regularly parked in the lay-by next to their farmland.
'We've had problems with youths on the lane. We'd seen that car in the past and called police but thought this time we'd scare them ourselves,' she said.
'There's litter and my horse had recently been injured because of people driving across the fields.'
'I waved to them and I was laughing, I don't understand how they didn't realise it was a joke.'


Mr Powell pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two charges of possessing an axe in a public place and using behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress on October 20, 2010.
He denied tapping on the window of the car with the axe and trying to get into the vehicle.
But magistrates said they believed he had done both which made their sentencing options more severe.
'I was running down the road with the axe over my shoulder,' said Mr Powell.
'I did not ask to be let into the car, I didn't even get to the car.
'I did not tap the window with the axe, if I had I would have put the window through.'
Presiding magistrate Mary Goldie adjourned the case for pre-sentence reports and said custody was an option.
After the hearing Mr Powell, of Crook near Kendall, said he deeply regretted the incident but had felt forced to take matters into this own hands after years of problems with people parking in the lay-by.
'My fiancee's family have been blighted by people parking up in that lay-by for the past 20 years,' he said.
'We spend hours every week clearing up litter and there's been tyre marks all over our fields.
'We've phoned police countless times to get them to help us but we've had no support.'
The couple have now had to cancel their wedding in Jamaica and planned move to Australia as the court case prevents him travelling.
'This whole incident has ruined my life and I could be facing prison.
'I deeply regret everything but our family are the real victims in all of this and I can't believe something this stupid has come to court,' he said.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1353152/Cant-joke-Farmer-faces-jail-faki...