A Suffolk scaffolding firm boss who hit a customer over the head with a bar stool during a pub brawl has been jailed for 21 months.
Sentencing 49-year-old Jonathan Sargeant, Judge Martyn Levett, said the attack happened after Sargeant had been making a nuisance of himself in the pool area of the North Street Tavern in Sudbury.
Sargeant, of Middleton Hall Cottages, Sudbury, admitted unlawful wounding.
In addition to being jailed, Sargeant was banned from contacting the victim of the attack for five years and banned from going to the North Street Tavern for the same period.
He was also ordered to pay £670 costs.
Nicholas Bleaney, prosecuting, said the offence was committed on December 28 last year.
He said Sargeant, who had been drinking, had been a nuisance to some customers who were playing pool and had interfered with their game.
Mr Bleaney said Sargeant was asked to leave the pub by the landlord and during a brawl that followed, Sargeant’s wife had ended up on the floor along with the victim of the wounding charge who was struck twice on the head with a bar stool by Sargeant.
Sargeant was also seen to kick out at the victim while he was on the ground, said Mr Bleaney.
In a statement read to the court, the victim described the attack on him by Sargeant as “vicious and cowardly”.
He said he had needed eight staples inserted in a cut to his head and had suffered nightmares as a result of what happened.
Gethin Payne for Sargeant said his client had been provoked by being punched in the face and his wife being thrown to the floor before he used any violence.
He accepted Sargeant may have been annoying or getting in the way of people trying to take pool shots but said he hadn’t been the first person to use violence.
He said his client accepted that although he was initially acting in self-defence he had then gone beyond that and used excessive force.
Mr Payne said Sargeant had had a difficult time in the last seven years since his wife nearly died giving birth to their son who initially wasn’t breathing.
He said his client ran a scaffolding business which employed three people who would lose their jobs if he was sent to prison.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here