Shropshire Star

Jailed: Thug stamped on unconscious barman at Telford hotel

A thug who stamped on the face of a Telford bar worker when he was unconscious, having already been assaulted, has been jailed for two years.

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Judge Anthony Lowe told Kyle Egerton the stamp could have had deadly consequences.

Egerton, 29, of Park Lane, Madeley, admitted causing grievous bodily harm to Matthew Haigh at the Beacon Hotel in Telford when he appeared at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Tuesday.

The attack happened four years ago but Egerton could not be traced by police having gone to Europe to work, the court was told. He was arrested when he returned to the UK in January.

Ms Lynette McClement , prosecuting, said Mr Haigh was on his first shift behind the bar in the Beacon on March 22, 2015, when he was attacked. He was punched in the face by another man, Logan Russell, which knocked him unconscious and caused a complex, displaced fracture.

Egerton was then seen on CCTV to lift up his foot and stamp so hard Mr Haigh's body jolted with the force, Ms McClement said. Egerton was stopped from making a second stamp by the pub owner, she added.

Expert evidence from a surgeon said that while the punch had caused the displaced fracture the stamp on the face would have made the injury worse.

Devastating

“It could have had potentially deadly consequences,” the report stated.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Haigh said the attack had had a devastating effect on him physically and mentally.

Russell was arrested and charged with assaulting Mr Haigh and given an eight-month prison sentence, the court heard.

Mr Robert Edwards, defending, said Egerton did not accept he had disappeared off the radar as, after the attack, he had remained at his home address in Madeley and waited for the police to come and get him. He waited for a month and, having heard nothing, decided to go travelling, working his way around Europe.

Egerton told police he had been trying to be a peacemaker during the evening.

His said all his previous convictions were connected with drink and since the latest offence he had stopped drinking.

Mr Edwards said Egerton had been in prison since January and had taken up education courses during his remand.

Judge Lowe said that he accepted that Egerton was not the angry young man that he had been four years ago and it was to his credit that he no longer drank alcohol.

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