Pub joke turns to a serious assault (From Gazette Series)

Pub joke turns to a serious assault

THE TRIGGER HAPPY TV sketch where Dom Joly shouts loudly into his mobile phone sparked an attack on a man in a Gloucestershire pub, a court heard.

Lee Billingham, 20, who had Dom Joly's ringtone on his phone, was annoyed when a woman in the pub heard it go off at the bar and made fun of it.

She shouted 'Hullo' just like Joly - but Billingham did not see the joke, Gloucester crown court was told.

He got aggressive with the woman - and then with her boyfriend, whom he hit on the head with a piece of broken bottle in his hand.

Victim Stewart Willett suffered a deep, 2cm gash on the head which needed five stitches, said Paul Grumbar, prosecuting.

Billingham, of Quedgeley, who admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Willett with intent at The Bell Inn, Frampton-on-Severn, on August 15 last year, was sentenced to 21 months in a young offenders institution.

Judge Jamie Tabor QC said he regarded the offence as being at the "bottom end of the scale" of grievous bodily harm cases.

He told Billingham the normal tariff for such an offence would be three and a half years but he was giving him credit for owning up to it and also for his psychiatric problems - he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia - which were an important background feature.

Mr Grumbar said the pub had a policy of not selling any drinks in glasses or bottles but it appeared Billingham had bought the bottle from a shop and then broken it.

When Billingham was arrested later that day he claimed the woman at the bar had been very abusive and her partner had then gone after him. He had swung the single punch at Mr Willett as a result, he said.

Only when Mr Willett's wound was examined by a doctor and glass was found in it was it realised that Billingham must have had something in his hand. He was then re-arrested.

Mr Grumbar said Billingham had previous convictions including an assault and disorderly conduct.

George Threlfall, defending, referred the court to a psychiatric report on Billingham which showed he has a paranoid schizophrenic psychosis.

Billingham had changed dramatically since his arrest. He had given up drinking, was going to the gym every day and was no longer monosyllabic in response to questions.

Mr Threlfall urged the court to consider a non-custodial sentence on Billingham, whom he described as "basically quite a gentle person".

But Judge Tabor said that if he did that the prosecution would undoubtedly appeal and the Court of Appeal would impose a custodial term.

Passing what he described as "the very least sentence" possible for such an offence, the judge said he accepted that Billingham was genuinely sorry for what he did.

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