Cleared of attack with baseball bat (From Gazette Series)

Cleared of attack with baseball bat

A FORMER Cam man has been cleared of beating a teenager over the head with a baseball bat during a street brawl.

A jury at Gloucester Crown Court found Mr Ireson, 22, formerly of Draycott, but now living with his mother at Birchall Avenue, Matson, not guilty of assaulting Owen Douglas causing him actual bodily harm on December 18 2004.

He was also found not guilty of driving dangerously on Christmas Eve that year, of driving while disqualified and of possessing an offensive weapon - a samurai sword.

Mr Ireson told the jury he could not have been present for either of the two incidents because on the first occasion he was in bed with this then-girlfriend and on the second he was out drinking with friends in Cheltenham.

"I was at Draycott, Cam, with my girlfriend until the next afternoon," he said. "I was 17 miles away tucked up in bed with my girlfriend.

"I did not leave the premises that night and I did not assault anyone."

Asked about the allegation that he had driven into Mr Douglas' brother's car after brandishing a samurai sword, Mr Ireson said: "I was with friends in Cheltenham. A group came to Dursley to take me back to their area.

"I was with about six people."

He did admit that he should have been inside because he was on a curfew for a previous conviction and said that he drunk pints of vodka and an energy drink that night.

"I fell asleep at a house in Hester's Way at about 3am," Mr Ireson told the court. "I didn't enter Gloucester - I was in Cheltenham until the next morning when I went to my brother's address. I had nothing to do with it whatsoever."

At the start of the trial prosecutor Samuel Butterfield alleged that Mr Douglas, 19, was at a party in Matson on December 18 when a fight broke out.

He said Mr Douglas tried to break up the fight but was pushed by Ireson's sister. When Mr Douglas pushed her back, she fell to the floor and threatened to call her brother, alleged Mr Butterfield.

Mr Butterfield then claimed that Mr Ireson later appeared from a nearby alley wielding a baseball bat, which he then used to beat Mr Douglas about the hands and head.

Mr Douglas was treated for a cut and a 'squashy bruise' to the back of his head as well bruises to his arms, it was alleged.

On December 24 Mr Douglas went with his brother and other family members in a car to find Mr Ireson, Mr Butterfield said.

It was then, the prosecution alleged, that Mr Ireson brandished a samurai sword and drove straight at the Douglas' car.

"He knocked out the lights and damaged the front wing," Mr Butterfield said. "He then reversed at speed and drove off erratically."

But the jury did not believe this version of events and Mr Ireson walked free from court.