Man ‘glassed’ stranger then later ‘laughed and joked’
AMAN was ‘laughing’ and ‘joking’ in McDonald’s just moments after he glassed a complete stranger in a nightclub.
Lee McGuiness, 21, attacked 18-year-old Jake Hopwood, after he “lost it” and twice demanded that he “stop f...ing filming”.
A hearing at Liverpool Crown Court heard the two strangers were in The Establishment in Wigan on New Year’s Eve in 2019 and Mr Hopwood was filming as the club was permanently closing the next day.
Despite the student’s friend intervening, McGuiness “slapped or punched the phone from Jake Hopwood’s hand,” said Karl Scholz, prosecuting.
He added: “Jake Hopwood was trying to explain that he wasn’t filming the defendant but he wasn’t interested in his explanations.
“He pressed his face against Jake Hopwood’s face and Hopwood pushed him on the chest to move him away.
“Almost immediately he felt a blow to the left side of his head which was so forceful it knocked him down to the ground.
“He was helped to the feet and he became aware that glass was falling from the side of his head.”
He was helped out of the club and waited for his mum to arrive to take him to hospital.
He was treated for a three centimetre full thickness cut to the back of his ear and a five centimetre superficial tear to the left side of his head.
The wound to his ear was bleeding profusely and did not completely stop for a week. He has been left with a lump which is being monitored by the hospital and he may need plastic surgery, said Mr Scholz.
Three and a half hours later police arrived at McGuiness’s home and he was arrested and interviewed. He admitted pushing the phone out of the victim’s hand and telling him to stop filming him but denied hitting him with a bottle.
McGuiness, 21, of Rivenmill Place, Widnes, pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm on the day his trial was due to start last month.
He pleaded on the basis he had not deliberately armed himself with a weapon and the case involved recklessness. It was clear the implement was glass but it was not known if it was a bottle or a glass.
In impact statements Mr Hopwood, who was 18 at the time of the assault, said it was the first New Year’s Eve he had spent in a club and it would be his last.
He is still suffering pain because of nerve damage to his head and ear which makes basic things such as human touch or brushing his hair painful.
Mr Hopwood said that as a result of the incident he fell behind with his university work and had to retake his second year which increased his debt by £17,000.
He suffers from sleeplessness and nightmares and while anti-anxiety medication has helped him it has not cured it. He no longer feels safe going out socialising.
In his impact statement he said: “I still cannot believe someone could smash a glass against someone’s head for no good reason and walk away like nothing had happened.
“He was in McDonald’s an hour later laughing and joking and eating while I was sat in A&E with my mum waiting to be seen.”
Mr Hopwood said he has been called names because he notified the police.
Peter White, defending, said that McGuiness had “grossly misinterpreted the situation and acted wholly inappropriately. He acted out of character.”
He has no previous convictions and the offence happened more than two years ago.
Mr White said the defendant works in a B&M warehouse and lives with his parents and his girlfriend as they are saving up for a home together. He looks after his father who is registered disabled and his mother has recently been diagnosed with a terminal illness.
He added that McGuiness has not drunk to the same extent as he had that night and had been candid about having something in his hand, albeit at a late stage.
Jailing him for 15 months Judge Gary Woodhall said: “Under the influence of alcohol you committed an unprovoked attack in anger on a stranger in licensed premises.”
He pointed out the victim is still suffering the ongoing effects of the attack two years later.
The judge said he took into account his mitigation and that there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation but the only appropriate punishment was immediate imprisonment.
McGuiness wiped away tears as he stood in the dock as did his partner in the public gallery.