Latics legend in dock over stag do violence
OLDHAM Athletic legend Garry Hoolickin ended up in the dock – along with three of his sons – after a stag do descended into violence.
Hoolickin, 59, who played for Latics in the seventies and eighties, was out celebrating ahead of his son Anthony’s wedding when trouble kicked off at Revolution Bar in the city centre.
Anthony Hoolickin, 42, who played for Oldham, Bury and Rochdale himself, and around 20 friends and family were out for the night. He went outside with his brother Christopher for a smoke, but when they were finished the doormen refused to let Christopher, 39, back in to the Parsonage Gardens venue.
When Garry Hoolickin Snr tried to negotiate with the bouncers, one of them pushed him so forcefully he stumbled backwards into the middle of the road, Manchester Crown Court heard.
His sons Garry Jnr, 32, and Christopher went to his defence and an ‘ugly’ street brawl developed between members of the stag party and the bouncers.
At its height one of the bouncers, although not the one who is said to have shoved Garry Snr, was repeatedly punched and kicked on the ground, the sentencing hearing was told.
The victim suffered memory loss as a result of what he described as a ‘rain of blows,’ and has since left his job.
Christopher and Anthony Hoolickin admitted charges of affray and assault causing actual bodily harm and were sentenced to 18 months, suspended for a year, with 200 hours’ unpaid work and an order to pay £600 each to the victim.
Garry Hoolickin Jnr and family friend Andrew Orrell, 31, who all played lesser roles in the fracas, admitted affray and were sentenced to 12 months, suspended for a year, with 150 hours’ unpaid work and an order to pay £300 each to the victim. Garry Hoolickin Snr was sentenced to a 12-month community order, with 120 hours’ unpaid work, and an order to compensate the victim £300.
Prosecutor Neil Nehra said after one of the bouncers ‘delivered the first push,’ the defendants ‘went way beyond self-defence.’
“It was aggressive, it was violent, it was prolonged, there was an element of revenge”, he added.
Alex Leach, defending Christopher Hoolickin, described him as a hardworking, devoted family man. Referring to the murder of his brother Michael Hoolickin in Middleton last year, he added that the family had suffered a ‘profound loss.’
Julian Goode, defending Anthony, said: “It was his stag do, it had been a happy occasion, it was seeing his father on the floor which caused his involvement.” Patrick Buckley, defending Garry Snr, said: “He’s man of hitherto exceptional good character. Household names have written in what can only be said to be glowing terms of the success he enjoyed whilst playing. He’s never been in trouble before.”
Nicola Hall, defending Andrew Orrell, said he had been attacked on a night out since, and had learnt ‘profound lessons.’
Sentencing the men, who are all from the Middleton area, Judge Richard Mansell QC said Garry Hoolickin Snr was subject to a ‘dangerous act’ from the bouncer who had pushed him into the road.’ But he added the group then behaved like a ‘pack of animals’ in setting on the doorman’s ‘blameless’ colleague.