Wrexham,North Wales - Doorman was bitten by man as he tried to pick him up off floor

Published date: 24 December 2016 | 

Published by: Staff reporter
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A man bit a doorman on the hand as he tried to pick him up from the floor.

Door worker Mark Davenport was called to eject a man from the Soul Suite club in Pen Y Bryn, Wrexham at about 2.15am on October 29.

Craig Wesley Griffiths, 37, intervened and there was an altercation where both men fell to the ground.

Rhian Jackson, prosecuting at Wrexham Magistrates Court, said Griffiths bit Mr Davenport’s hand as the doorman tried to help him back to his feet.

Griffiths, of Albert Grove, Ruabon, denied biting the doorman when questioned by police and said his metal watch strap might have caused the injury. If he had bit Mr Davenport, Griffiths told officers, “I would have bit him on the face and chinned him”.

He also claimed to police the door staff had made up their account, but at the hearing Griffiths admitted assault by beating.

Magistrates heard Griffiths had 19 convictions for 28 offences, seven of which were offences against a person including common assaults in 2009 and 2011. His last offence was being drunk and disorderly in March 2015.

Ceri Evans, defending, said Griffiths had made some changes to his life and there had not been a consistent rate of offending in recent years.

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She said Griffiths was a hardworking man, employed as a petrol tank inspector for a company which counted the Ministry of Defence among its customers.

He went out in Wrexham very infrequently but on this occasion he had gone out with friends for a couple of drinks, but they stayed out and ended up at Soul Suite.

Griffiths had felt a sense of injustice as his friend was being ejected when he had not done anything wrong, Miss Evans said.

He tried to reason with Mr Davenport but was escorted out.

During the incident the two men fell and afterwards the doorman had his arm around Griffiths’ head.

He now accepted he bit the victim and “fully regrets his actions”.

But Miss Evans added Griffiths did not start the altercation, which was brief and isolated to a bite.

Magistrates jailed Griffiths for 16 weeks, suspended for six months, and ordered him to pay £200 in compensation to Mr Davenport, a £115 statutory surcharge and £85 in prosecution costs. He was barred from Soul Suite for six months.

Albert Hughes, chairman of the bench, told Griffiths: “This was a serious assault upon a person doing his duty in a public place, resulting in injuries to that person.”

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