Football hooligans are jailed after violent match-day brawl
FOOTBALL hooligans who threw punches, kicks and missiles at each other in a violent brawl outside a Cardiff pub have been jailed.
The three Cardiff City and 10 Aston Villa supporters clashed outside the the Cornwall pub at the junction between Cornwall Street and Hereford Street in Grangetown on August 12 last year. The brawl occurred after Cardiff City beat Aston Villa 3-0 in their Championship clash.
Bluebirds supporters Nathan Pleace and Vincent Richards, alongside Villa fans Mark Baker, Gary Tucker and Brett Clarke, denied a single charge of violent disorder but were found guilty on October 5 following a trial.
Villa fans Hayden Perryman, Paul Sweeney, Richard Willmore, Darren Simms, Ryan White, Paul McMinn and Terence Coughlan all admitted the same offence. Cardiff City fan David Cooper also pleaded guilty to violent disorder.
The group were due to be sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court on Monday but one of the defendants did not attend.
Summing up, Judge Neil Bidder QC told the court the group of Aston Villa fans pulled up outside the Cornwall in a rented minivan at about 6.45pm after the match had concluded.
“The pub did contain men who had been at that match,” Judge Bidder said.
“But it also contained women, elderly people and children who were enjoying a drink, food and a chat.”
Judge Bidder told the court about “15 or so” men got out of the minibus and “headed quickly and with determination” towards the Cornwall pub towards two men who were stood outside. “What then occurred was a serious, violent incident,” he said. Judge Bidder said bottles and cans were thrown from both sides leading to “at least three” men being kicked on the floor. The group eventually retreated back to the bus but returned again for a second assault with some members of the Aston Villa group attempting to gain entrance to a side door of the pub.
“I am sure that all the defendants in the bus wanted a fight with Cardiff City fans,” Judge Bidder said.
“Thus I am clear that those from the bus share substantially greater responsibility than those of the pub who had not expected trouble when reacting to those on the bus.”
Judge Bidder separated the defendants into three categories based on their level of culpability and the seriousness of their offending.
Aston Villa fans Clarke, 40, and White, 21, were placed into the most serious category alongside 30-year-old Cardiff City supporter Pleace. The judge ruled the behaviour of Villa fans Perryman, 25, McMinn, 49, Coughlan, 57, Simms, 24, and Willmore, 27, put them in the second-most serious category.
Bluebirds fans Cooper, 28, and Richards, 32, were also in the second category, while the offending of Villa supporters Tucker, 51, Baker, 47, and Sweeney, 32, were deemed the least serious.
Clarke, of Winchester Drive, Solihull, was sentenced to three years in prison. White, of St John’s Street, Dudley, was handed a two-year custodial sentence.
Coughlan, of Blackrock Road, Birmingham, was given a 16-month custodial sentence, while Willmore, of Aldershaw Road, Birmingham, along with Simms, of Wednesbury, West Midlands, and Cooper, of Mornington Meadows, Caerphilly, were each given 14 months in prison. McMinn, of Castle Bromich, Solihull, and Perryman, of Turf Pits Lane, were handed a 12-month sentence each. Sweeney, of Knightcote Drive, Solihull, and Baker, of Ashburton Road, Birmingham, were sentenced to nine months in prison.
Each of the Aston Villa supporters was made the subject of a football banning order for six years barring them from attending matches at Cardiff City Stadium or any other league stadium while the order is in place.
Richards, 32, of Leckwith Road, Llandough, failed to attend the sentencing hearing and Judge Bidder issued a warrant for his arrest.
The sentencing of Tucker, of Holly Lane, Birmingham, and Pleace, of Andrews Road, Llandaff North, was postponed while they wait to receive scheduled medical surgeries.
Pleace is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow while Tucker’s sentencing has been listed for February next year.