A York man thrust a pint glass into a punter’s face at a Selby pub, leaving the victim with a deep wound “the size of a 50-pence piece”, a court heard.
Paul Austin, 37, lunged at the young man in the New Inn on Gowthorpe after shouting and swearing at him and his friends “for no reason”, prosecutor Ben Campbell told York Crown Court.
CCTV captured the moment Austin got up out of his seat and “took up a couple of steps towards (the victim), striking him once to the face with the glass, causing a cut to his right cheek”, said Mr Campbell.
As blood poured from the gaping wound, one of the victim’s friends punched Austin in the face, knocking him to the floor.
The named victim, who didn’t know Austin, was taken to York District Hospital by his mother where he had the deep wound stitched.
A few days after the drunken attack, a police officer was about to go to the victim’s home to take a statement when, out of coincidence, Austin made a 999 call and officers were directed to his home instead.
When police arrived, Austin was sat inside his house, clutching a knife and a machete, telling them that someone had posted a card through his letterbox which he took as a threat.
Austin, who was “apparently scared”, handed the weapons over and told officers he “wouldn’t hurt police because he wanted their help”.
“He said, ‘I might as well admit it; I had a fight the other day and I hit a bloke with a glass’,” added Mr Campbell.
‘Heavily drunk’
Austin, who was a regular customer at the New Inn, said he “shouldn’t have done it” and apologised.
On being arrested, he said he had called police because “people had been to his house with guns, brayed on his door and posted letters through his door”.
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He was initially charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm which he denied but admitted an alternative charge of wounding without intent to do serious harm.
Austin, of Riverside Walk, Nether Poppleton, appeared for sentence via video link today (Tuesday, July 12), after being remanded in custody.
Mr Campbell said that according to the landlady at the New Inn, Austin was heavily drunk at the time of the incident on August 5, 2020.
She said he was a regular and had mental-health problems.
Austin had a criminal record spanning over 20 years. His 37 previous offences including attempted robbery in 2003 and wounding in 2010, the latter offence resulting in a two-year prison sentence.
Alex Menary, mitigating, said Austin had a history of admissions to a psychiatric unit in York and had been on a detox programme while on remand. His last serious violent offence was 12 years ago.
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Judge Simon Hickey said that despite the seriousness of the attack, which had left the victim with a permanent scar, he could suspend the inevitable jail sentence because Austin was trying to turn his life around.
He cited a probation report which concluded that Austin was now less of a risk to the public and the prospect of rehabilitation was good.
The 15-month jail sentence was suspended for 18 months, during which Austin must complete 80 hours of unpaid work and up to 25 days’ rehabilitation activity. He was also ordered to comply with an alcohol-abstinence programme but there was no compensation order due to his limited financial means.