A MAN was assaulted in the street near his Rugby home – in front of his three-year-old daughter – as he was on his way to tell a neighbour about a drunken New Year reveller dancing on the roof of his car.
And at Warwick Crown Court one of his attackers was made subject to a nightly curfew to prevent him behaving in the same way this year.
Jay Drage had pleaded guilty to assaulting the victim causing him actual bodily harm, while one of his friends, Jacob Bryan admitted an alternative offence of common assault.
Drage, 19, of Warwick Road, Wolston, was given an 18-month community order, with a rehabilitation activity for 30 days and an overnight curfew for two months.
Bryan, 22, of Berwick Gardens, Rugby, received a 12-month community order, with a rehabilitation activity for 20 days, and was ordered to do 60 hours of unpaid work.
As the victim ran away, Jacob Bryan ran up to him and aimed a kick at him.
Prosecutor Ian Speed said in the early hours of New Year’s Day this year a young man with Drage and Bryan danced on the roof of a car parked in Gareth Williams Close.
As a result, that young man was charged with causing criminal damage, and has since appeared in the magistrates’ court where he was given a community order.
Out in the street at that time were a married couple who had their three-year-old daughter with them.
And Mr Speed commented: “Neither of the parties were wholly blameless. The woman had armed herself with an empty bottle, and the man with two sticks.”
There was a verbal altercation as the husband headed to his neighbour’s home to alert him to what was happening.
That led to Drage punching him, and he accepted going ‘over the top’ by then kicking him while he was down.
Bryan then became involved and as the victim ran away Bryan ran up to him and aimed a kick at him, said Mr Speed.
He added Drage was subject to a community order for an earlier assault at the time, while a suspended sentence Bryan had been given for an assault in 2016 had only expired a couple of weeks before the incident.
David Everett, for Bryan, said: “There was an incident when someone else caused the damage to the car, and then Mr Drage got involved in an argument.
“The complainant put his finger onto Mr Drage’s chest, and that led to the incident between them. Mr Bryan was not involved in that at all, but he comes on the scene and tried to push them apart and is grabbed by (the victim’s wife).
“As (she) ran away, he ran up to him and kicked out at (the husband), and fell over himself. That was his only involvement.”
And Jason Pegg, for Drage, said he was ashamed, but pointed out that he had entered his guilty plea on a basis.
“It is the case that the complainant and his partner had objects on them, and it’s when the complainant puts his finger on his chest that Mr Drage lashed out.”
Sentencing the two, Judge Cooke told them: “You both behaved disgracefully. When you were tanked up with booze, you got yourselves involved with one of your friends who was equally drunk and jumping up and down on someone’s car.
“The complainant went to report it to the person who owned the car and, while not blameless, he was assaulted by you.
“One of the really horrible things about this is that not only was this man kicked on the ground in front of his wife, his three-year-old daughter was there seeing daddy getting a kicking.”
Of Drage’s two-month curfew, he added: “It will stop you going out on the lash and behaving as you did last New Year.”
