News Long-running row ends in punch-up
Three local men have been fined and ordered to pay £1,800 in compensation between them to a teenager they punched after a dispute about a moped.
Nathan Clayton (19), of Weeland Villas, Snaith, Adrian Bugg (26), of Camm Lane, Carlton and Andrew King (34), of Croft Road, Camblesforth, all appeared in Goole Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, and were all charged with assault occasioning actually bodily harm.
The assault, which took place on September 9 last year, left the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, with several injuries including a broken nose.
Julie Laverack Glanville, for the Crown Prosecution Service, told the court that the incident came after the teenager had accused Mr Clayton of trying to steal his moped.
"Since then, there was ill-feeling between them," she said.
"At 9.45pm on Saturday September 9 2006, the victim was sitting on a wooden and metal bench on The Green in Rawcliffe with a group of friends."
Mrs Laverack Glanville said that the victim had been to a party and had been drinking but was aware of what was going on.
He received a text message from a friend warning him that the defendants were on their way, and very shortly afterwards a car pulled up in front of the bench and the defendants got out of the car.
"Mr King asked for the victim and then proceeded to punch him once, causing him to fall back against the bench.
"The victim tried to bring his arms up around his head and curled up in a ball to protect himself."
The other two defendants continued to attack the victim: Mr Bugg punched him hard in the face two to three times and Mr Clayton kicked and punched him several times in the face and body.
'Shocking' sound as head smashed against bench
The blows caused the victim's head to bang against the bench and the sound was described by two witnesses as "shocking".
As a result of the attack, the teenager suffered injuries including a broken nose, a broken toe, black eyes, bruising, a sore shoulder, and teeth that were moved out of place but not knocked out.
Defending, David Robson said all three of his clients were "ashamed" and "apologetic" for their actions, and had shown remorse.
He also said there had been provocation and explained that Mr Clayton had been wrongly accused.
"There were repercussions between the two groups - there was not an attack for no reason," he said.
"On that day, there had been another incident and the defendants decided to go and speak to the victim.
"They wanted to resolve the situation.
"Things got out of hand," he said.
Mr Robson queried how the defendant had sustained a broken toe in the assault and pointed out that there had been no further trouble since the incident.
"They are young people who are capable of keeping out of trouble," he said, and asked for the defendants' early guilty pleas to be taken into consideration.
He also said that Mr Clayton later admitted feeling pressurised over his involvement in the assault.
Magistrates said they had decided to treat all the defendants in the same way, as previous convictions balanced out varying degrees of involvement.
The three men were told: "The offence is so serious that custody is the only sentence" and were given a five month prison sentence, suspended for two years.
They were also ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work in the community and to pay the victim £600 each in compensation and £50 each in court costs.
"The sentence is so serious because it was a premeditated attack which caused serious injury," magistrates said.
Published on 26th April 2007 in News.
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