Drunken thug launched attack on total stranger
VICTIM WAS PUNCHED, KICKED AND STAMPED ON
A DRUNKEN thug attacked an innocent stranger with punches, kicks and stamps in a shameful street attack after attending a wake.
Sean Connon had attended a club on the outskirts of Newcastle city centre to mark someone’s passing when he ended up arguing with his mother outside.
He then turned on a man who was walking past, launching a ferocious and sustained attack which was caught on CCTV.
A judge at Newcastle Crown Court said it was the sort of violence that often results in people being killed, but the victim escaped with bruising and swelling.
On the afternoon
of March
8, 2022, Connon had been to a wake at St Dominic’s Catholic Club, on Crawhall Road, Newcastle.
He had thrown a bread crate through a window in his drunken and agitated state
Meanwhile, the victim had been drinking at the nearby Tanners Arms and, when he left, he saw Connon arguing with his mother outside the club.
As he walked past, Connon asked “what are you looking at” before attacking him.
CCTV footage of the assault shows him raining punches on the victim and stamping and kicking him on the ground. Members of the public eventually intervened and helped the man.
He was left with a black eye, pain and swelling to his head and face, swelling to his wrist and thumb and pain to his shoulder.
But Judge Penny Moreland said: “He could have killed that gentleman. That footage is what we see time and again in murder cases, where someone is struck to the ground and kicked and stamped on.”
Connon, 31, of Melbourne Court, Battlefield, Newcastle, pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to 16 months in prison, suspended for two years, with an alcohol abstinence monitoring requirement and he must pay £340 costs.
Judge Moreland told him: “You were drunk and argumentative in the street towards your mother and you picked on an innocent bystander and attacked him in a way which I’m told you now realise was a shameful display of unprovoked aggression.
“You punched him repeatedly, you punched him to the ground and while he was on the ground you stamped with your full force on him and you kicked him.
“When you attack somebody in that manner you risk killing them and appearing at the Crown Court for murder.
“Fortunately for him, and for you, the injuries were unpleasant but not so serious as they could easily have been.
“This was a prolonged and persistent assault.
“I accept you are sorry and I know you suffer from mental health conditions. What caused your offending was your drinking.”
Jonathan Crawford, defending, said: “Clearly this was a deeply unpleasant assault. When he watched the footage he described himself as feeling sick.
“All he wishes to do is to apologise to the man in question. There is genuine remorse for his conduct.
“He has barely drunk since. This was an emotionally charged day in respect of attending a wake.”
When you attack somebody in that manner you risk killing them and appearing at the Crown Court for murder
JUDGE MORELAND