A STREET brawl has earned a Rugby couple suspended prison sentences after they attacked a man who turned up at their home brandishing a deactivated shotgun and looking for a fight.
And a judge at Warwick Crown Court told Peter Ellery and Kristy Perkins he was ‘at a loss’ why the man who started the trouble was not in the dock next to them.
Ellery, 31, and Perkins, 35, both of School Street, Rugby at the time, had denied charges of affray and possessing offensive weapons during the incident outside their home.
But at a further hearing the couple, who had admitted causing criminal damage, had pleas of guilty to an alternative offence of using threating words and behaviour accepted.
They were both given three-month prison sentences suspended for 18 months, and were each ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work.
Prosecutor Suzanne Francis said that in June last year the couple were at their home in School Street when a man arrived in his car with a second man.
The second man went to the address and told Ellery that the car’s owner wanted to fight him, so Ellery went outside, followed by Perkins.
In the street the car’s owner had a shotgun, which turned out to have been deactivated, and as he and Ellery faced each-other Perkins hit him to the head with a length of wood.
Ellery then picked up a bottle and struck the man to his arm, causing him to drop the gun.
Meanwhile Perkins smashed a window of his car, and Ellery picked up the shotgun which he then used to smash another window.
Originally Ellery had been charged with possessing the shotgun without a certificate, before it was confirmed that it had been deactivated and did not need a certificate.
But the court heard that the car’s owner, who had actually taken it to the scene, had not been charged over his part in the incident.
Miss Francis added that Ellery had previous convictions for offences including having an offensive weapon, and Perkins’ convictions included affray and battery.
Colin Charvill, for Ellery, observed: “Mr Ellery was at his home minding his own business, and was confronted by someone with a weapon.”
Judge Anthony Potter commented: “I am aware there are others who have not faced charges for reasons which are not clear.”
Omar Majid, for Perkins, said they were now homeless and ‘sofa-surfing’ with friends – but there was an address at which they could be contacted if they were ordered to do unpaid work.
Sentencing the couple, Judge Potter told them: “I accept you were both at Miss Perkins’ address and that you did not travel to another address seeking trouble.
“But when it came to your door, rather than ignoring it or calling the police, you went out into the street and engaged in unlawful violence, both of you hitting (the victim) and both of you smashing the windows of the car in which he had come.”
But of the car’s owner and his companion, the judge added: “I am at a loss as to why they are not stood in the dock next to you.”
