Published date: 26 September 2016 |
Published by: Staff reporterRead more articles by Staff reporterEmail reporter
A JUDGE has called for an explanation as to why a large man who assaulted a woman publican in Wrexham was only charged with causing her actual bodily harm.
Judge Rhys Rowlands said the victim had suffered a significant injury and it was clearly grievous bodily harm.
He sentenced Leon Mayo, 25, outside the guidelines for ABH and jailed him for a year.
A five-year restraining order was made not to contact victim Gaynor Ouslem or her partner.
He is not to enter The Traveller’s Rest at Hightown, Wrexham, and he is not to say anything about her or her partner on social media.
Miss Ouslem suffered a fractured wrist and other injuries when she was assaulted by the customer, said to be twice her size, after he stripped to his waist during a terrifying incident captured on CCTV.
Mayo, 25, was said to be hallucinating and feeling paranoid and was later sectioned under the Mental Health Act following the attack in May.
Judge Rowland said it was a drunken loss of temper against a licensee who was on a night off but who was called to the premises because of his abusive and difficult behaviour towards a barmaid.
“All staff who work in licensed premises have to deal with difficult customers.
“It’s the court’s duty to look after their interests and make sure they are not abused, threatened or assaulted during the course of their work,” the judge said.
The licensee rightly told the defendant that such behaviour would not be tolerated.
His partner became aggressive, both were asked to leave, and what followed “was quite disgraceful”.
He was a large man and pushed her with force so that she and a customer ended up on the floor.
“Then in an appalling display of aggression you threw a glass which fortunately, although it broke, did not hit anybody,” he said.
His behaviour continued and the victim was pulled heavily to the floor where she sustained a significant injury to the wrist. It had a profound effect upon her.
ABH had a sentencing range of up to 12 months, GBH a range after trial of up to three years and the judge said a member of the public who watched the CCTV footage would think it was an affront to justice to follow the ABH sentencing guidelines.
In addition to the 12-month sentence for ABH, Mayo received an additional two months consecutive, making 14 months in all, after he admitted being in breach of a community order for two counts of breaching a restraining order not to approach a former partner.
Prosecuting barrister Matthew Dunford told how Mayo erupted and pushed her to the floor when she spoke to him about his behaviour.
He stripped to the waist and threw a beer glass.
At one stage the licensee picked up a pool cue in order to usher him out – but he grabbed it and pulled it with such force that she was thrown, on her face, onto the ground.
She needed surgery for a broken wrist when plates and pins were inserted.
Mayo, of St Anne’s Court in Wrexham, had previous convictions for violence including an incident when he had bitten a man’s ear.
In the present case, the victim was bleeding from the mouth and lip and was shocked and dazed.
She had a badly bruised left knee, a bruised face, two broken teeth and her bottom lip was split where her teeth had come through.
In a victim impact statement, she said she was a first time landlady and had never experienced anything like it before.
She had been in a state of shock and disbelief and felt physically sick when she thought about it.
Andrew Green, defending, said his client knew it had to be custody.
He was genuinely sorry for what he had done. It was no excuse but at the time he had experienced a crash in his mental health and was later admitted to hospital.
He was now taking his medication and was stable.
There had been a dramatic improvement in his mental health.
l Judge Rowlands asked for a detailed, written explanation from the CPS over what he said was under-charging in the case.
He said it was not an ABH case “in a million years”, and the level of charging had done the victim “a real disservice.”
see-http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/167117/judge-pans-cps-for-letting-down-wrexham-gbh-assault-victim-.aspx
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