Topless thug drove at terrified clubbers

A SHIRTLESS thug drove at revellers and repeatedly rammed a vehicle during a terrifying incident outside a nightclub.

Sam Barrett, 26, drove in an ‘erratic’ manner outside the White Hotel venue in Lower Broughton, Salford, moving forwards and backwards and causing other clubbers to jump out of the way.

A witness said Barratt was ‘laughing hysterically’ as he rammed a car.

A Manchester Crown Court sentencing hearing was told how there were more than 200 people at the venue for a music event.

Paul Totton had driven Barrett and another man who has not been identified to the venue, arriving before 4am.

Barrett was later escorted from the club. He was not wearing a shirt and ‘swinging a bin around.’

Outside, Barratt called a student a ‘n ***** ’ before punching him to the face, which caused him to fall to the ground and hit his head. Barrett also called the man’s friend a ‘n ***** ,’ and offered to fight him. One was then hit to the head with a glass bottle by the man who had arrived with Barrett and Totton, causing a ‘nasty’ cut.

It’s thought Totton got back in his car, moving it in an apparent bid to leave.

But Barrett, with Totton also in the car, then got behind the wheel and started driving erratically, narrowly missing people outside the club.

He then began to target the man he had punched. He had to jump onto the bonnet of the car to avoid being hit.

He and his friends then hid behind a parked car, but Barrett rammed it about three or four times.

He then stopped, got out and started fighting again before they left the scene, in the early hours of Sunday, September 23, 2018.

Barrett was identified by the T-shirt he left behind at the scene, while Totton was picked out on CCTV footage.

Both pleaded guilty to affray, while Barrett also admitted dangerous driving.

Barrett was jailed for 18 months and Totton, 39, received a nine-month sentence. One of the victims said the incident was terrifying, describing ‘three crazed men on the rampage.’

“I don’t think I will ever forget it,” they said. “It was a miracle we didn’t get crushed,” another said.

For Barrett, Rob Kearney said the defendant, a father-of-two, pleaded guilty at the first opportunity at the crown court.

Defending Totton, of HMP Manchester, Jane Miller said he has shown remorse.

In a basis of plea document accepted by prosecutors, Totton said that he had tried to get others to stop, and his lawyer said he did ‘attempt to stop events from escalating further.’

Barrett, of Chatford Close, Lower Broughton, was also banned from driving for two years and nine months.