Prison for pair after knuckle duster attack
Judge: ‘This violence was totally unnecessary’
A man was attacked with a knuckle duster after being set upon by two men in Scarborough town centre.
The vi ct i m was doing s ome shopping when Andrew Flower, 31, and Zac Rhodes, 23, walked up to him.
Flower whipped his woolly hat off his head and when the man tr i ed to get i t back, an argument broke out, whereupon Rhodes pulled out a knuckle duster and used it to punch t he man in t he mouth with enough force to knock him to the ground.
Flower then joined in the attack as the man was on his hands and knees.
He punched him three or four times in the head before a member of the public intervened and the two attackers scurried away.
The victim suffered five broken teeth and had to go to hospital where he had Steri strips applied to a cut on his nose.
Flower and Rhodes were later arrested and charged with assault occasioning actual bodi l y harm. They admitted the offence and appeared for sentence at York Crown Court last Thursday.
Prosecutor Matthew Collins described the build-up to the attack, which happened on December 27 last year, as “very silly – one you might expect to see in a playground”.
It became much more sinister when Rhodes – who had known the victim for 12 years and went to school with him – pulled out the knuckle duster.
The court heard that Flower, of Grosvenor Road, had previous convictions for 22 offences including violence. Rhodes, of Wooler Street, had 15 previous convictions for 27 offences including battery and possessing a knife.
Defence l aw ye r D av i d Camidge, for Flower, said his client had only been out of prison for 10 days when the incident i n Scarborough town centre occurred.
Barrister Andrew Semple, for Rhodes, said his client had an alcohol problem.
Judge Stephen Ashurst told the defendants: “This violence was totally unnecessary. You made a mess of his mouth and left him with some nasty dental injuries.”
He sentenced them both to 12 months in prison.