THE OWNER of a Henley-in-Arden pub and restaurant has been left with a permanent scar to his head after an aggressive young customer threw a beer glass at him.
Not content with that, out-of-control Jacob Cox, who had already swept a number of glasses from the bar, then twice hurled a bar stool at the already-injured licensee.
But despite his ‘vicious and drunken tantrum,’ he escaped being jailed after pleading guilty to assault and causing criminal damage at the Bluebell in High Street.
The 22-year-old, of Archer Drive, Solihull, was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months, with 130 hours of unpaid work, by a judge at Warwick Crown Court.
He was also made subject to an electronically-tagged overnight curfew for three months and ordered to pay the Bluebell’s chef/owner Joe Adams a total of £2,203 compensation.
Prosecutor Aadhithya Anbahan said on January 5 this year Cox and others including his girlfriend went into the bar at the Bluebell where they began acting ‘in a disruptive manner.’
Mr Adams, who was behind the bar, asked them to calm down because they were upsetting other customers, at which Cox hurled abuse at him.
The licensee politely asked the group to leave, but felt threatened because Cox, who he knew by sight as a regular at the Bluebell, ‘looked really angry.’
In a rampage captured by a CCTV camera and played in court, Cox ‘back-handed’ a number of beer glasses from the bar, causing them to smash on the floor behind the bar.
He then threw the glass he was holding at Mr Adams, hitting him to the forehead and causing a 4cm wound just above his hairline.
Still out of control, Cox picked up a tall bar stool and hurled it in the direction of Mr Adams, but it hit the beer pumps.
Not content with that, he retrieved the stool and flung it for a second time towards the owner, this time hitting other beer pumps and bottles, before being dragged away by his friends.
Mr Adams, who had already asked his staff to call the police, was taken by ambulance to hospital where his wound was glued.
Miss Anbahan commented that in a pre-sentence report Cox appeared to show ‘a lack of remorse,’ and a degree of trying to blame Mr Adams for what happened.
Rupert Jones, defending, said Cox was a man of “previous good character” and was now knew “he is the only person responsible for the incident”.
Sentencing Cox, Deputy Judge Richard Griffith-Jones told him: “What you did was wholly inexcusable. Your behaviour was despicable.”
