Colwyn Bay,North Wales - Man banned from all pubs and clubs over Christmas and new year

Published date: 30 October 2015 | 

Published by: Staff reporter
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A young man has been banned from all pubs and clubs over Christmas and the new year.

A violent incident in the early hours of New Year’s Day, involving a number of young people at a Llandudno night spot, was captured on CCTV and played to a crown court judge.

One reveller had been injured but a judge said that he should have been prosecuted as well.

Two men were due to do on trial on a charge of wounding at Mold Crown Court.

A warrant was issued for the arrest of one of them when he failed to turn up.

Mark  Hughes, 21, of Isfryn, Colwyn Bay, admitted an alternative charge of affray following the incident on New Year’s Day.

Judge Niclas Parry told him that he was “skating on very thin ice”.

“On licensed premises at night, in the presence of many people you were involved in what we have all seen  - a serious, prolonged incident of violence. It involved weapons and kicking. It would have been frightening.”

But he had pleaded guilty, he only had one previous conviction for violence which went back a long way, he was still young, and it was his first time in the crown court.

Above all he bore in mind that the man who was injured should have been in the dock with him, but was not. “You were not looking for trouble, trouble found you,” Judge Parry told Hughes.

In the circumstances, Hughes was given an eight month prison sentence, suspended for a year, and told to carry out 250 hours unpaid work in the community.

The judge also made a prohibited activity requirement banning him from entering any on-licensed premises including restaurants until January 10 next year.

Prosecuting barrister Caroline Harris said that were called to Club 147 in the early hours of January 1.

A man was found with a cut to the head and he was treated as a complainant originally and he identified Hughes and his co-defendant as the perpetrators of the assault.

The CCTV showed the injured man and the absent defendant talking and Hughes tried to strike out with the bottle.

Whatever his argument about acting in self-defence, that was excessive, she said. It could not be said that the bottle made contact but that was his intention.

It was only because the other man moved that the bottle did not strike him, she explained.

Defending barrister Gareth Roberts said that his client was embarrassed and ashamed . He had put that kind of behaviour behind him when he left his teens.

He was unemployed but desperate to get back into work.