Ex-United star spared jail for ‘brutal attack’
FORMER United player Ronnie Wallwork has been spared jail for a ‘brutal attack’ on an acquaintance during a bar room row over his white trainers.
Wallwork, 43, and his pal David Garner, 44. left their victim in hospital with serious facial injuries including a fractured right eye socket after launching their sickening attack at The Jam Works, a bar in Droylsden.
Garner headbutted the man to the ground and then Wallwork threw a series of punches during 25 seconds of violence that was captured on the bar’s CCTV.
Their victim had been socialising with his brother-in-law and began chatting with Wallwork, who he had known for five years, in the bar on Market Street on December 22, 2019, a court heard.
Prosecutor Brendan O’Leary told Minshull Street Crown Court that during the evening there was ‘some conversation’ about the white trainers Wallwork was wearing. In a victim personal statement read out in court, the man described the cause of the attack as ‘something not even trivial’. Wallwork was arrested five months later and told officers the man had been ‘mocking’ his clothes and that he had ‘felt threatened’, the court was told.
Wallwork was handed an 18-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to carry out 20 days of rehabilitation activity and 200 hours of unpaid work. He was ordered to pay his victim £500 compensation. Garner was also handed an 18-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to carry out 40 days of rehabilitation activity and pay his victim £1,000 compensation. He was also told to complete a nine-month alcohol treatment program. Wallwork, of Densmore Street in Failsworth, and Garner, of Sparth Road in Newton Heath, had both pleaded guilty to GBH.