Jail for man who bit pub doorman

'Last chance meant just that - you're going to prison' - judge

A MAN who bit a town centre pub doorman and spat in a police officer’s face has been jailed.

Warren Holland had hoped that a suspended sentence imposed for previous similar offences would not be activated.

However, district judge Davinder Lachhar, presiding at Reading Magistrates’ Court on Monday, told the 23-year-old, who lives at Boars Hole Cottages, Hermitage: “When the suspended sentence was imposed you would have been told it was your last chance.

“Now I’m being asked to give you another one. But last chance means just that. You’re going to prison.”

Elaine Kale, prosecuting, said the latest incidents happened in the early hours at the Snooty Fox pub in Bartholomew Street, Newbury.

A drunken Mr Holland had been asked to leave, but he attacked a doorman named Sam Edwards, sinking his teeth into his leg.

He then spat full in the face of a police officer who arrested him, the court heard.

Mr Holland admitted being drunk and disorderly and assaulting a police officer, both on April 8.

He further admitted that the offences placed him in breach of a six-week prison sentence imposed last December, but suspended for 12 months.

Mr Holland also has numerous previous convictions for offences including drink-driving, assaulting a police officer and being drunk and disorderly in public.

Moses Tawo, defending, said his client had a personality disorder for which he was being medicated.

But he conceded that both the condition and the medication meant that Mr Holland should not drink alcohol.

Mr Tawo added: “He is unable to control his mood swings when he is under the influence of alcohol. That is his problem.”

The court was told that Mr Holland had been offered help by the relevant services, but had continued to drink and, consequently, to reoffend.

District judge Lachhar said: “These were nasty and serious offences – biting a person who was just doing his job and assaulting a police officer by spitting in his face.

“I don’t see why these people should have to put up with it.

“I have no alternative but to activate the suspended prison sentence imposed for the previous offences.”

District judge Lachhar also added two weeks to the sentence, meaning Mr Holland was jailed for a total of eight weeks.

He was also ordered to pay £50 each to Mr Edwards and to the police officer he assaulted.