Jailed for knife threats after drinking shandies
A DRUNK man threatened to slit the throats of bar staff and gut a man at three different pubs in the same night after they refused to serve him.
Anthony Tasker was already barred from each of the three pubs in Bulkington and could only remember being attacked from behind that night after having drunk just three or four shandies at home. He also claimed to not even knowing of one of the village pubs and said that staff at the other two had it in for him.
However, a jury saw through his lies and convicted him of three counts of affray and three of possessing a bladed article after a trial at Warwick Crown Court. And following an adjournment for a pre-sentence report to be prepared on him, Tasker, 33, of Marston Lane, Bedworth, was jailed for a total of four-and-a-half years.
The jury had heard that the charges followed incidents at Poppys, the White Lion and the Rule and Compass on the same night in July 2017.
“He made threats and, in two premises at least, he produced a knife to back that up when he was refused alcohol,” said prosecutor Ian Ball.
On July 2 Tasker had gone to Poppys in Stafford Close, where a member of staff served him with a pint before she was told by the manager that he had been barred.
She was on duty again two days later when Tasker walked in at around 8pm, so she refused to serve him, reminded him he had been barred and asked him to leave.
Trying to get round her refusal to serve him, Tasker began asking other customers to get him a drink, but she said she would not serve anyone with a drink for him.
Tasker then went to the toilets, from where the licensee heard a bang, before a customer came out holding his hand to his forehead.
He was followed by Tasker who was threatening to slit his throat and before leaving, he threatened that he would slit the barmaid’s throat as well.
Tasker then moved on to the White Lion, in Leicester Street, where the staff also refused to serve him because he had been barred.
“He was highly agitated. He kept repeating that if he was not served he would jump over the bar and serve himself,” said Mr Ball.
The prosecutor stated that Tasker put his hand in his pocket and produced what the landlord’s father thought was a flick-knife, threatening “with some menace” that he would “do five years” for him, and would gut him, said Mr Ball. A member of staff went over to Tasker and persuaded him to leave, but he continued to hang around on the car park for some time, so the doors were locked until he finally left.
But he had headed straight across the road to the Rule and Compass where a member of the bar staff refused to serve him because he had been barred from that pub as well.
“He towards said.
“He then took out what she thought was a Stanley knife and lunged towards her while she was on the other side of the bar.”
He threatened that if she called the police, he was abusive her,” Mr Ball would come back and slash her throat, at which she fled from the bar and ran upstairs, after which Tasker left.
The police had been called to the White Lion, and as officers tried to find Tasker they were pointed in the direction of Bulkington Sports and Social Club where they saw him leaving.
He ran off down an alleyway and officers who gave chase then saw him emerge from some bushes and he was arrested and searched, but no knife was found on him.
When he was interviewed the next day, Tasker, who did not give evidence in the trial, claimed he never carried a knife and described the allegations as “a load of s***”.
He said he had drunk three or four shandies at home and all he could remember was being attacked from behind, but could not remember where he had been or who had hit him.
Tasker said he did not know of Poppys and did not remember threatening anyone there, and claimed that the staff at both the White Lion and the Rule and Compass had it in for him.
Jailing Tasker, Judge Peter Cooke handed him a nine-month sentence for the first incident, 18 months for the second and 27 months for the third - all consecutive to each other.