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A brave clergyman who twice tackled criminals who confronted him at his home making threats and demanding cash said he forgives them.

Father Simon Treloar, the Dean of St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Wrexham, spoke out after his latest attacker was jailed for a year.

He had refused Jason Haynes money after the 32-year-old turned up at his doorstep and threatened to “beat him to a pulp”. Haynes, only released from prison that day, struggled with him and assaulted him.

But Father Treloar grabbed the attacker by the throat to keep him at arm’s length, pushed him out of the door and dialled 999. Officers found Haynes in Wrexham town centre, although he was banned from there under an ASBO. He was detained by community support officers despite a struggle and then arrested, when his arm was apparently broken.

It emerged Haynes had breached the ASBO, imposed because of problems he caused in the town centre, on five previous occasions. He also had a previous conviction for attempted robbery.

Yesterday Father Treloar said: “He forced his way into the doorway but I was not having any of it.

“I might be a clergyman but I am not a doormat. Of course, I forgive him”.

He added: “People think Christianity is a soft touch but that’s what the benefits agency is for.”

It was the second time that Father Treloar has been confronted by an attacker in the cathedral grounds.

On April 3 last year, he opened his Deanery door to a man holding a smashed vodka bottle. He immediately took a swing at the priest with the broken glass.

“It came within about a foot and a half of his face. But Father Treloar grabbed his attacker’s wrist, pushed him away and closed and locked the door.

For that incident, Steven Barry Ellis, 45, of Bodlyn, Acrefair, was jailed for two years and nine months last September after he admitted attempting to wound Father Treloar with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm and possessing an offensive weapon.

On Friday Judge Rhys Rowlands said that Haynes, of no fixed abode but who previously lived in Rossett, had behaved “very badly indeed”. “You just quite deliberately ignore court orders. You go out and get drunk, make a thorough nuisance of yourself. You have an appalling record for disorder, dishonesty and violence,” Judge Rowlands told him.

Andrew Green, defending, said that his client made no excuses but said that the level of threat and violence was at the lower end of the scale.