Pair jailed for street attack on man

TWO Lowestoft men have been sent to prison after admitting assaulting a Portuguese man.

On September 21 last year, Patrick McCauley, 34, and 23-year-old Gary Crisp were walking along Arnold Street in the town at about 5.30pm when they saw Fernando Salas walking towards them with his sister.

Peter Gair, prosecuting at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday, said that Crisp started flirting with Mr Salas' sister. An argument then started between Mr Salas and Crisp, which soon became violent.

Crisp threw a punch at Mr Salas and also threw his coat at him. McCauley, who had been carrying a pint glass with him from the pub, then got involved and hit Mr Salas with the glass.

Mr Salas was taken to hospital with a cut to his head and needed three stitches. A one-and-a-half centimetre piece of glass was also taken out of the cut.

Ipswich Crown Court recorder David Anderson QC said that McCauley and Crisp were originally accused of racially aggravated assault, but the charge was changed to assault occasioning ABH because there was no evidence of any racist motivation.

McCauley, of Park Road, Lowestoft, and Crisp, of St Margaret's Road, Lowestoft, both admitted the charge when they appeared at Ipswich Crown Court on June 24.

Matthew Gowan, for McCauley, told the court yesterday: “It is quite clear Mr McCauley had been carrying the glass in his hand for some time. This is not a man who has deliberately used that glass to cause injury.”

Steven Dyble, representing Crisp, said that although his client started the argument with the victim, he could not have known that McCauley would use the beer glass to hit him.

Sentencing the pair, Mr Anderson said: “It was a nasty and unprovoked attack, an assault by two people on someone you did not know. It involved the use of a weapon, even though the use of a glass was reckless rather than premeditated or deliberate. The injuries received were significant.”

McCauley was sentenced to 15 months in prison and Crisp to 12 months.