Dad attacked man with cue after relapse

A rehabilitation worker, who fell off the wagon after almost 20 years, beat a man with a pool cue after being mocked for wearing pyjama bottoms.

Gary Cross became angry after being heckled as he walked down Bank Street, Maidstone, at 2pm on Sunday, June 4.

Maidstone Magistrates’ Court heard the 51-year-old, formerly of Staplehurst, had drunk six cans of strong lager and injected a large amount of cocaine before the incident.

The father-of-two, clean for almost two decades, had been staying with a friend after he suffered a relapse.

The court heard as Cross passed Bar 6 three men started shouting at him. Having approached them to see what the issue was he was sworn at and began to chase one of them.

They ended up inside the venue, at which point Charles Davies told Cross to leave the pub, making him even more angry and resulting in him picking up the cue and hitting Mr Davies with it three times with such force it shattered.

Cross left the bar and in his rage smashed the front door of Set in Stone, which was made of 4.6mm thick safety glass.

Two police officers arrived and tried to calm him down but he punched both before being restrained.

Cross had previously admitted affray, criminal damage, assault and two counts of assaulting police officers.

Magistrates heard from probation who explained Cross had a number of convictions prior to attending rehabilitation in 1998 but since then had stayed out of trouble and stopped drinking and taking drugs.

He married and became a rehabilitation worker, but had recently started working nights, stopped going to church and was taking an intensive course of medication to treat Hepatitis C. The result of this drove him to drink and drugs again.

Cross, who appeared from custody, was described as “unpredictable and chaotic” and the court was told he was on the 12th day of a hunger strike.

Sentencing him to 126 days in prison Andrew Backway, chairman of the bench, said: “We are sending you to prison to ensure you can get the help you need to get back on the wagon.”