A judge has demanded to know why it took North Wales Police five months to arrest a man following an attack in Ruthin.
Power linesman Aaron Duffy, 21, knocked another young man to the ground in the town’s Well Street on May 15.
A few days later he did the exact same thing to another man at a young farmers’ rally at Bala- breaking his nose and knocking his teeth out during the incident.
But the Mold crown court heard that Duffy wasn’t arrested for the Ruthin offence until October - despite the fact that he had been named as the attacker on the night.
By then he had already received a suspended sentence from a judge at Caernarfon Crown Court for the Bala offence.
Today, Judge Rhys Rowlands said that Duffy would not “in a million years” have got off with a suspended sentence if the court knew he had done the same thing twice in a matter of days.
He said Duffy of Berwig Court in Coedpoeth, Wrexham, deserved to be sentenced to almost two years behind bars for the offences.
'Seriously wrong'
But that was now impossible, judge Rowlands said.
Instead, Duffy was an eight month prison sentence suspended for two years.
He was also tag for four months and ordered to pay £500 compensation to his victim, William Matistock.
During the sentencing, Judge Rowlands also asked for a written explanation from North Wales Police police who he said had seemingly done nothing for five months.
“Something has gone seriously wrong in this case,” he said.
In a victim impact statement Mr Matistock told how he considered himself extremely lucky that he had not fallen back and cracked his skull after being struck by Duffy.
Ceri Evans, defending, said that the defendant had changed his life since the offences occurred.
He had moved to a new area, he was working hard, he no longer drank and did not go out very often.
It was clear that he had made good progress on the suspended sentence and had responded well, she said.
see-http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/judge-demands-know-police-took-10930433
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