Drunk man smashed Newbury pub window

Lacerated hands gave game away

POLICE caught the vandal who smashed a town centre pub window – by looking at his lacerated hands.

Jack Stanley Green could give no explanation for the tell-tale cuts and so he ended up in the dock at West Berkshire Magistrates’ Court last Thursday.

Earlier, he had been drunkenly banging on windows in the early hours, eventually punching a hole in one at the Bacon Arms in Oxford Street, the court heard.

Helen Gambrill, prosecuting, said police saw the 19-year-old, who lives in Digby Road, Newbury, with another man in the town centre at 2am. “They appeared to be drunk, running around and banging on windows. They decided to follow them.”

As they left Northbrook Street and disappeared around the corner into Oxford Street, said Ms Gambrill, “the officers heard more banging followed by the sharp crack of breaking glass”.

She went on: “The officers ran after the men, who they found hiding in a nearby residential car park. This defendant had injuries on his hand and they discovered that the window of the Bacon Arms had been smashed.”

CCTV footage showed Mr Green approaching the pub, disappearing from view for a second, then running away.

The court heard that, when he was interviewed by police he acknowledged that he was familiar with the Bacon Arms but claimed to have no recollection of his actions.

Mr Green admitted causing criminal damage worth £100 on March 21 this year. He has previous convictions and further admitted being in breach of a conditional discharge imposed for a prior public order offence.

That involved an incident in McDonald’s restaurant in Northbrook Street, Newbury, said Ms Gambrill, in which Mr Green had threatened to beat up the manager.

Nicola Cole, defending, said: “He was quite shocked when he viewed the CCTV footage and saw the state he was in. He couldn’t remember how he got home. It turns out that police officers gave him a lift. He accepts he was behaving in a disorderly way and caused the damage. He is sorry for that and is trying to turn his life around.”

She said her client had been offered a job as a landscape gardener.

Magistrates fined Mr Green £137 and ordered him to pay £85 costs plus a statutory surcharge of £20. In addition he was ordered to pay £100 compensation to the Bacon Arms.