Smug drinker pushed glass into doorman’s face during gang attack

A 25-YEAR-OLD Derbyshire man glassed a doorman in the face before walking away laughing.

Derby Crown Court heard Joshua Walker and his partner then stuck their middle fingers up at the victim as he bled from his wounds.

The hearing was told the defendant and a large group of friends were out when an argument erupted at a bar.

Sentencing Walker, of Loscoe, to a year in jail, Judge Robert Egbuna said: “You struck him directly between his eyes and the glass shattered causing cuts all over his face. He describes you standing in front of him assessing the damage you caused.

“You were smug-looking, he said a smile broke across your face, pleased with what you had done, and then laughing. One of his group was heard to say ‘look at the state of him now’, also laughing. He read his own victim impact statement and it was clear for all to see this assault has had a significant impact on him.”

Sarah Allen, prosecuting, said the offence took place on the evening of June 22, 2019. Walker and a large group of friends, including his partner, were in the Tipsy Toad bar in Matlock.

Miss Allen said the victim went over to the group and asked the defendant for proof he was old enough to drink which angered him.

Miss Allen said: “The defendant swore at the victim then hit him. The victim said he felt his jaw click and pushed the defendant out. At that point the defendant’s group, estimated to be around 20 people, started to attack the doorman who described punches raining down on him from all sides.”

Miss Allen said at that point the defendant came towards the doorman holding a shot glass in his hand.

She said: “He pushed it straight into his face. It was used as a weapon. It caused a number of cuts including one to his neck which would not stop bleeding. The victim said he defendant immediately after looked pleased with himself and began starting to laugh.

“The group the left with the defendant and his partner sticking their middle fingers up to the victim.”

Miss Allen said the doorman needed hospital treatment.

She said Walker was not arrested until three months after, and replied “no comment” to each question he was asked when interviewed by police. He had been identified in a video line-up in February of this year.

The doorman appeared himself in court to read out his own victim impact statement. He told how even now he still struggled to sleep. He said he has worked doors for the past eight years, since the age of 18, and never had trouble like this before.

He told the court: “My friends and family told me to stop working as a doorman which I really enjoyed and now I have. I feel like he has stolen my enjoyment from me.”

Walker, of Sir John Warren Way and who had no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Steve Cobley, mitigating, said his client fully accepted the impact his actions had on the doorman. He said: “He knows that in June of last year, the day before his 24th birthday, by his criminal actions the defendant changed the life of his victim forever.”